Written in SCIENCE he
In true Armageddon style, a new threat to the planet was approaching, but what do we know about the asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower What could hit the Earth? Here we need all the details.
the dangerous asteroid CL3 passed close to the planet last Wednesday, May 24, at about 7.23 million kilometers, which is equivalent to 19 times the distance between the earth and moon. According to the Center for the Study of Near-Earth Objects (CNEOS) of the POTthe estimated speed of the object is 7.33 kilometers per second.
Regarding size, the object has the peculiarity of having a diameter of between 87 and 200 meters, equivalent to the size of the Eiffel Tower, in Paris.
Despite the size, speed and risk alert, the international body indicated that there was no possibility of the asteroid hitting and destroying Earth, since the scientific community considers it an object close to the planet, but not a potentially dangerous object.
In addition, NASA explained that asteroids approach Earth daily, but they are mostly small and distant objects, in fact, the planet is collided by about 100 tons of space material every day.
It should be remembered that in 2016 NASA created the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which is in charge of supervising projects for the detection and classification of near-Earth objects that could be a risk to life on our planet.
Can an asteroid be deflected?
The PDCO is dedicated to the investigation of new techniques to avoid a collision, there is only the case of the mission DART (Double Asteroid Redirect Mission), whose purpose was to change the trajectory of an asteroid upon impact with a satellite.
This mission was a success for the scientists, since after the crash it was possible to modify the orbit of the asteroid in 32 minutes, which meant a historic advance in the fight to cement a space defense.