The asteroid 2008 AG33qualified by the NASA as “potentially dangerous“, is approaching Earth this Thursday.
The asteroid, sighted for the first time on September 27, 2003 and whose size is almost five times the height of the Hotel Arts and the Mapfre Tower (which measure 154 meters) and twice the New York Empire State -the last one that passed so close, a month ago, measured only one Empire State-, will reach its closest position to Earth this Thursday, before noon.
However, scientists from the US space agency acknowledge that the chances of it entering our orbit and colliding with the planet are “minimal”.
Diameter
The NASA has given more information about it and calculates that its diameter varies from 350 to 780 meters.
This type of spatial elements has caused the fear in the scientific community since the human being was interested in space. The films and documentaries that deal with a possible cataclysm due to the impact of a meteorite are numerous. Although for the moment there has never been an event similar to the one that supposedly ended the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
chinese defense system
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Precisely because of this widespread fear, China has begun to develop a asteroid defense system that could collide with the Earth, as reported on Wednesday by the local media ‘China Daily’.
The system aims to “improve Earth’s ability to monitor, alert and manage extraterrestrial dangers,” the deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Wu Yanhua, explained this weekend.