As 2020 draws to a close and the number of existential threats to life on Earth appears to be declining at least slightly, NASA is warning of the close flight of three asteroids over 40 meters in diameter.
Only on December 21, three asteroids ranging from 5.1 meters to 45 meters in diameter are expected to pass by Earth.
The small five-meter YB 2020 has already crossed the planet at a relatively close distance of 899,000 km.
Their space rock companions are 45 meters (or about half the height of the Statue of Liberty) 2017XQ60 and 42 meters (one third the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza) 2020 XA3, going to 4.1 million and 4.8 million kilometers respectively.
Next, on Tuesday, December 22, the 14-meter asteroid 2020 XH6 will pass at a distance of 2.4 million kilometers, followed shortly by 41 meters (2.5 times the height of the Hollywood sign) 2020 YP at 5.7 millions of km.
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For reference, the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is about 384,000 kilometers.
Later this month, following a successful mission to collect samples from the distant asteroid Ryugu, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft will visit another space rock as it approaches Earth.
On December 10, 2020, the Hawaii agency’s Subaru Telescope captured an image of the 1998 asteroid KY26, which is expected to approach Earth in mid-to-late December, at a distance close enough to be observed with a telescope. great, event that happens every 3.5 years.
With an estimated diameter of 30 meters, the 1998 KY26 is much smaller than its distant counterpart Ryugu (870 m), but is also much closer.
This latest image, in combination with a photograph captured by the Southern European Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), will help the Hayabusa2 mission and improve its chances of successfully meeting before the probe runs out of fuel, after he has completed not one, but two missions outside this world that will support the planetary defense of humanity for years to come.
“This will be the first mission in this small asteroid, so it is very significant both in terms of planetary science and planetary defense (protecting the Earth from collisions with stellar objects)”, Dr. Michitoshi Yoshida, director of the Subaru Telescope, said.
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