130-feet asteroid travelling towards Earth at 6000 meters per second

Asteroid 2022 YS5 has been red-flagged by NASA‘s Planetary Defense Coordination Office because of its extremely close approach to the planet. At a distance of 5.9 million kilometres per hour today, January 13, the asteroid will come the closest to Earth. Currently, it is moving toward the earth at a speed of around 21506 kilometres per hour!

Due to its enormous size, asteroid 2022 YS5 is particularly worrisome. According to NASA, this asteroid has a width of 130 feet, making it almost as large as an aeroplane. If it crashed, it might harm people and property, especially if it happened in a densely populated region.

Although an impact with Earth is not anticipated, a tiny change in the asteroid’s trajectory caused by the Earth’s gravitational attraction may send it racing in that direction. However, you shouldn’t be concerned because NASA has already put its planetary defence strategy to the test with the DART Mission, protecting the earth from wayward asteroids.

How NASA tracks and studies asteroids

Numerous near-Earth objects have been discovered through surveys conducted by ground-based telescopes supported by NASA, such as Pans-STARRS1 in Maui, Hawaii, and the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona. And while surveying the heavens at near-infrared light wavelengths from its polar orbit around Earth, a space-based telescope known as NEOWISE has discovered hundreds of others. NASA collects detailed information on the asteroid’s properties and route using its ground-based radar.

The Near-Earth Object impact risk is determined by NASA’s new impact monitoring system, which use the Sentry-II algorithm. The NEO Surveyor project, which will use a new orbiter to collect even more detailed data, is scheduled to launch in 2026 by the space agency.

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