Look at the sky: From tonight (Tuesday) through Thursday, nine asteroids will pass up to a few million miles from Earth. These are enormous distances, but for comparison, the distance between the moon and our planet is only about 400,000 km.
“Half of the bodies we pass these days have only been discovered since the beginning of the year. That says something about the high concentration of asteroids we hear about this week and in general,” says Bar Hayun of the Israeli Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology.
“About thirty new asteroids are discovered every week. It’s a crazy pace attributed to the success of detecting objects from increasing distances. Just three years ago NASA spotted a smaller asteroid than a car, from a distance of 450,000 kilometers. It is farther from the moon, so it is good news for the Earth’s defense system, “Hayun added.
These are quite large dimensions for an asteroid (or rather: it is larger than 90% of the asteroids we know of), and if the 45RM 1999 ever hits Earth – it is likely to do real damage. Fortunately, this will not happen on March 2, 2021, nor in the coming centuries. The asteroid will pass us at a speed of 20 km per second.
How did such a large number of objects pass together near Earth? A glance at their catalog name, which includes the year of the asteroid’s discovery, shows that in recent years NASA and other bodies have many resources in discoveries and locate more objects that could pose a danger.