Friday, December 18, 2015

For Christmas, an asteroid will skim the Earth – Le Parisien

Halloween had been a comet, asteroid will have its Christmas. On December 24, a huge space object than 2 km long will “close” the Earth, but without presenting any danger. But when it comes to close, it’s across the universe. Asteroid should rise to something like 28 times the distance separating Earth from the Moon. Far beyond the dead comet that was passed on October 31, Halloween day, about 500,000 km from us, or 1.3 times the distance separating Earth from the Moon.

The Christmas asteroid, dubbed 2003 SD220, was discovered in 2003. “It is not on our list of objects at risk,” said Maria-Antonietta Barucci, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory. “There is no danger, can be quiet, relaxed and enjoy Christmas,” added the CNRS researcher.

“You have to study the asteroid deflection technology”

The next planned move an asteroid close to Earth will take place in 2029 . The asteroid Apophis will pass at a distance less than about 10 times that of the Moon, about 30,000 km. “But even he will not be so dangerous,” cautions Maria-Antonietta Barucci. Collisions between Earth and space objects over 1 km in length occur about every 100,000 years.

“It can be expected, every year or so, several visits Objects of this size at such a distance, “said Mark E. Bailey, director of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. There are 65 million years, the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (and even 75% of all known life forms, according to many experts) “was ten times bigger than in 2003 SD220,” he said .

The specialists keep repeating for years to come, there is no real danger or the less known collision between Earth and an asteroid. But as we do not know all space objects, “you have to think, to work, keep looking objects,” explained Maria-Antonietta Barucci. “Above all, we must study the dangerous asteroid deflection technology and test, to be ready on D-Day.”

LikeTweet

No comments:

Post a Comment