Tuesday 13/Dec/2022 – 11:39 AM
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah said that there is a newly discovered small asteroid that will pass Earth tomorrow, Wednesday, and cannot be seen with the naked eye.
A small asteroid will pass through Earth tomorrow
And she explained in her statement: On Wednesday, corresponding to December 14, 2022, a newly discovered small asteroid called 2022 XX with a diameter of 7 meters and moves at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second will cross, and it will be at the closest distance of 208,456 kilometers at 01:43 pm Mecca time, i.e. 10: 43 am GMT, which is not visible to the naked eye and there is no danger of it colliding with our planet.
The association added: Asteroid 2022 XX is among the list of near-Earth objects, and it includes any asteroid whose orbit intersects with Earth’s orbit, and these asteroids are closely monitored, and thanks to high-precision observations and celestial mechanical calculations, their orbit is usually known with a high level of accuracy.
The passage of the closest asteroid during the next 10 years
And she continued: Based on the latest high-precision orbital calculations, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it has been confirmed that the asteroid’s approach, on Wednesday, is the closest in the next ten years.
And the association continued: If this asteroid was on a collision course, and entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it would not be able to cause damage, but it would suffice to appear in the form of a burning fireball that penetrates the sky, and its parts disintegrate and scatter, like meteorites.
And she emphasized: It takes advantage of such opportunities to reveal more about asteroids, such as the nature of their formation, as these bodies are like time, remnants of the formation of our solar system, which preserve many of the secrets of that era, and can tell us more about the origin of our planet.
She indicated that observing the movement of the asteroid is an excellent opportunity to test the international capabilities to detect and track near-Earth objects, and to evaluate our ability to respond together to any real threat to any asteroid in the future.
It is worth noting that small asteroids approaching Earth are likely to be affected by the gravity of our planet, an effect called gravitational assistance, which space agencies use to help propel spacecraft to various places in our solar system.