NASA reveals the approach of another asteroid that gives us the creeps. Today, November 7, the space rock dubbed ‘2022 UN21’ will make its closest approach to our planet. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA brings the news regarding the asteroid.
The 2022 UN21 asteroid certainly has a size that makes us worry a bit, as its dimensions are comparable to that of a house. To be more precise, the space rock measures 57 feet, enough to cause some level of destruction if it collides with our planet. But should we worry?
2022 UN21 will safely pass by Earth
The 2022 UN21 asteroid will make its closest approach to our planet at 1,910,000 miles away, which also translates to over 3 million kilometers. In other words, there’s no reason to be panicked because of this space rock. It will be much farther away from Earth, at its closest approach, than the Moon is.
2022 UN21 also surely doesn’t like to waste any time, as it hurtles through space at an enormous speed of almost 42,000 kilometers per hour.
It seems that for the first time in history, NASA has the right technology to deal with asteroids approaching Earth dangerously close. Last month, the space agency claimed that the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission had been successful. This means that NASA was able to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid to change its course in space. It was a small asteroid, but even so, the success of the mission provides a lot of hope that the same technique should work on much larger scales as well.
Lori Glaze, the director of the Planetary Science Division of NASA, stated the following, as Gizmodo quotes:
For the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary object.
Hopefully, there will be no need for NASA to apply a mission similar to DART on a much larger asteroid.