Asteroid 2022 UD3 is fast approaching the Earth
Are you a budding astronomer or an astronaut? Are you always fascinated about all things space? If yes, what do you look out for the most? Stars and galaxies, or comets and asteroids?
Talking of asteroids, these naturally occurring solid space objects, much smaller than planets but often orbits a star have been the highlight of 2022 space news. In fact, till date, more than 20 asteroids have been traced by space agencies worldwide.
For instance, only recently, NASA, the American space agency, with the help of its many space and ground-based telescopes has discovered a humungous asteroid named Asteroid 2022 UD3 that is hurtling towards the Earth.
In case you are wondering that’s not that big a deal, let us tell you why it certainly is. Well, for starters, the asteroid has only been discovered a few days ago on 18th October and is already moving at a dangerous speed towards the Earth. This has made the scientist community be on high alert. After all, even though it might not pose any viable threat to Earth, it is still classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid due to its proximity to the planet.
So, what exactly is the speed of Asteroid 2022 UD3? It is a whooping 23328 kilometres per hour! Now that’s settled, next comes the question of how close will the asteroid really come towards the Earth? Well, that is estimated to be 3.2 million kilometres from the Earth.
What else do we know about this asteroid? Well, let’s see: it is part of the Apollo group of asteroids. Moreover, it takes about 507 days to finish one orbit around the Sun. Its maximum and minimum distances from the Sun while in its orbit are 231 million kilometres and 141 million kilometres respectively.
However, although the asteroid will not directly impact the planet, it might undergo slight deviation in its path due to Earth’s gravitational field. This might change its trajectory and push it towards the Earth, leading to some sort of surface impact.
While we are here, let us also tell you something relevant and significant. This asteroid’s orbit has been calculated with the help of NASA’s NEOWISE telescope and its latest Sentry II algorithm.
In case you are wondering what Apollo group of asteroids means, it refers to a collection of near-Earth asteroids and is named after one of the first asteroids traced by mankind called 1862 Apollo, that was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. So far, 16768 of them have been located.