▲ The asteroid 2020 QG is circled by the red circle in the picture. It is the closest asteroid to the Earth. The Zwicky Transient Facility Telescope captured a picture of the asteroid flying quickly away from the Earth 6 hours after it reached the perigee.
According to foreign media reports, on August 16 this year, a car-sized asteroid flew by 2950 kilometers above the Indian Ocean. This is the middle and distance of the asteroid passing by the Earth. The nearest one on earth .
Although the asteroid named 2020 QG did not hit the earth this time and survived, its trajectory in space has undergone a major change.
“It’s really cool to see a small asteroid pass by the Earth from such a close distance, because we can see that the gravity of the Earth has made the asteroid’s trajectory a significant turn.” NASA Jet Propulsion Experiment Paul Chudas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Research, pointed out, “Our calculations show that when this asteroid was thrown out by the Earth, it moved about 45 degrees.”
Researchers did not know the existence of the asteroid 2020 QG before. Scientists discovered the asteroid for the first time until the Zwicky Transient Facility Telescope in Southern California captured a picture of the asteroid flying quickly away from the Earth 6 hours after it reached the perigee.
In this photo, 2020 QG is like a blurry stroke. After all, it can move at a speed of 46,700 kilometers per hour. But Chudas pointed out that this is still slower than the average speed of near-Earth asteroids.
There are millions of near-Earth asteroids of the same size in space, all ranging from 3 to 6 meters in diameter. These small rocks in space are difficult to detect, but they do not pose a threat to life on Earth.
Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.