Asteroids left over from the formation of our solar system
Asteroids approaching Earth always make headlines because colliding with them could lead to a huge catastrophe for human life. Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicated that Earth will experience some relatively close encounters with asteroids in the coming days. Five asteroids will approach our planet, with two of them approaching the closest planet to Earth today, according to NASA.
Notably, NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks asteroids and comets that will come relatively close to Earth. The instrument panel displays the date of closest approach, approximate object diameter, relative size, and distance from the ground for each encounter.
Here is the next asteroid approach:
Asteroid 2023 FU6: A small 45-foot asteroid is approaching its closest point to Earth today at a distance of 1,870,000 kilometers.
Asteroid 2023 FS11: The 82-foot asteroid will fly past Earth with a close margin of 6,610,000 kilometers today.
Asteroid 2023 FA7: A 92-foot asteroid the size of an airplane will approach Earth at a distance of 2,250,000 kilometers on April 4.
Asteroid 2023 FQ7: On April 5th, an asteroid the size of a 65-foot house will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 5,750,000 kilometers.
Asteroid 2023 FZ3: The largest asteroid among the upcoming asteroids, which is the size of an airplane, is expected to pass Earth on April 6. The 150-foot-wide rock, which is hurtling toward Earth at 67,656 kilometers per hour, will be its closest approach to Earth. Earth is at a distance of 4,190,000 km. However, the asteroid does not pose a potentially serious threat to Earth.
Nearly 30,000 asteroids of all sizes – including more than 850 larger than a kilometer – have been classified near Earth, earning them the designation “near-Earth objects” (NEOs). None of them threaten Earth for the next 100 years.
According to NASA, the asteroids left behind make up our solar system. Our solar system began about 4.6 billion years ago when a large cloud of gas and dust collapsed. When this happened, most of the material fell into the center of the cloud and formed the sun. Some of the dust that condensed in the cloud turned into planets.
Recently, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office said that a newly discovered asteroid the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool has a “small chance” of colliding with Earth on Valentine’s Day 23 years from now.