An asteroid the size of a house will fly past Earth on the night of 11 to 12 October, once again providing opportunities for experts to speculate on what would happen if the space wanderer had not missed our wondrous planet, passing within the orbit of the moon.
A stone giant named 2012 TC4, reaching a diameter of 50 to 100 feet (approximately the same as the asteroid that struck Chelyabinsk in 2013) will sweep past the Earth at a speed of about 16,000 miles per hour (4.5 miles per second). The Guardian reports that by our atmosphere an asteroid to come close at around 3 o’clock in the morning, before reaching the atmosphere, 27,000 miles.
In cosmic standards, this distance is not so great and. It is about one-eighth of the segment between the Earth and the Moon. The closest point, which is close to the asteroid, is a little more than our orbiting satellites.
«TC4 poses no threat to the planet, but it gives you the opportunity to test our ability to track asteroids and space defense,» — said Rolf Densing, the head of the European centre of space operations (Darmstadt, Germany).
If an asteroid was flying towards us…
In The Guardian, adding that if an asteroid the size of a TC4 or a little more will fly towards the Earth, and the point of landing will be inhabited by people of the territory, the space Agency like the European space Agency and NASA, will work with governments who may be affected at impact to start the evacuation.
But if scientists detect an object the size of more than 130 feet in diameter, approaching our planet, they will need to figure out a way to reject a potentially hazardous asteroid away from Earth.
One such way may be a method of the kinetic punchin which the special spacecraft will be launched with the expectation that it will crash into the asteroid, thereby changing the trajectory of its flight. The difficulty in this case lies in the fact that the asteroid needs to hit at least two years before it is actually closer to the ground to give him time to adjust trajectory and get away from the Earth.
Unfortunately, to see the space visitor to the naked eye will not work. Will not help you well as conventional binoculars or a household telescope. But now scientists at the Observatory will be able to watch it early in the morning.
