NASA reports that an asteroid the size of the Empire State Building will pass near Earth

Near-Earth Object Study Center pot Told that this Friday a asteroid empire state size It will pass at a distance of about 2.74 million kilometers from the planet. According to the agency, it is seven times more distant than the Earth and the Moon, so despite its dimensions, the risk of any kind of crash or any kind of damage is ruled out.

However, scientists will be closely watching this event and its trajectory, which will take decades for it to occur again. Meanwhile, for the rest of us it will be difficult to detect, because even with the necessary materials, it is a type of phenomenon that is complex to observe.

“We do not need to worry much because the asteroid will not enter the Earth’s atmosphere but will come close to the Earth. There are millions of asteroids in our solar system and about 2,350 of them were classified as potentially hazardous (PHA),” said Minja Kim, an expert at the University of Warwick, referring to the label given by NASA given its large size. Said.

2008 OS7, as the object is known, was discovered that year and measured between 210 and 480 meters across; In comparison, the height of the famous New York skyscraper is 381 meters. Eiffel Tower something approx 300,

Exactly, NASA describes asteroids – also called minor planets – as rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. According to the agency’s latest calculations, there are 1,308,871 of these objects and most of them are orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt. In any case, it is estimated that the total mass of all main belt asteroids is less than that of the Moon.

After passing this Friday afternoon, the space rock will return in 32 years, although it will then be at a distance of about 72 million kilometers. Kim said that this asteroid completes one orbit around the Sun every 962 days i.e. 2.63 years.

Along with this, three other celestial bodies will pass close to the Earth this week. These are small asteroids a few dozen meters wide, which will pass through the area between Friday and Saturday. Similarly, on Sunday it will be the turn of a rock about half the size of 2009 OS7, 7.3 million kilometers away.

On the other hand, NASA had said a day earlier that it hoped to be able to place the module on the lunar surface on February 22. nova-c, manufactured by the company Intuitive Machines. It will be the first private module to reach the Moon. It is already inside the fairing of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which will take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This object will carry three NASA instruments to space for research and technical testing on the lunar surface, which will allow crews of future Artemis missions to do their work there more easily. In short, it will study space weather, lunar surface interactions, and test precision landing technologies for future autonomous navigation systems.

(With information from AP)