Mysterious Asteroid Passes Earth - Object expected size of 18 meters is the center to the attention of the world's astronomers. As reported in Discovery, although known to keep close to Earth, this asteroid does not pose a direct threat. On Thursday, the space rock will be at a distance of 130,000 kilometers from Earth, or about one-third of the distance of Earth to the Moon. Very rare objects such as asteroids located at a distance this close before. Still not certain whether the object space is really an asteroid or not. The discovery in 2010 AL30 is fairly new, that is 11 January. 2011 MD, as the asteroid is named, did not come as close to Earth as a smaller asteroid, 2011 CQ1, which avoided an impact with the planet by just 3,405 miles in February, according to Geek.com. Even so, 2011 MD flew closer to Earth than the moon.
The latest asteroid is 33 feet long and was discovered this week by telescopes in New Mexico, the AP reports. According to the IBTimes, 2011 MD is the fifth-closest asteroid to zip past Earth. Some experts argue, based on the characteristic shape of the orbit and a period of evolution around the sun similar to Earth, it is believed that the celestial body it is orbiting space junk that happened far from Earth astmosfer. However, opinion was denied by Alan W. Harris, senior researcher of the Space Science Institute, USA, since 2010 AL30 does not look artificial. "Its orbit does not resemble the former spacecraft trajectory," he said. According to him, these celestial objects like asteroids that cross Earth's path cuts the other. Only, incidentally, a perfect orbit, which resembles the Earth.
Certainty that this thing is not just a bia asteroid or confirmed on Thursday, when the object is approaching Earth. NASA's Goldstone radar in the Mojave Desert scheduled to identify this thing on Wednesday (13/1/2010). The reflected waves that are fired into this thing will make sure his form. Despite the pros and cons of this form of real objects, Andera Boattini of the Catalina Sky Survey said the emergence of 2010 AL30 is a test of the mitigation system on Earth in the face of the threat of asteroids that might have pierced through the Earth. Fortunately, although it leads to Earth, the celestial body the size of the population is relatively harmless. Because, even if it hit Earth, objects that the power of small atomic bomb explosion equivalent will be directly destroyed so touching atmosphere.
To this day, Spaceweather released, there are at least 1092 asteroids that have the potential to hit Earth. Length of various sizes, ranging from small, ie 18 meters as 2010 AL30 up to 1.4 kilometer range of 24 761 Ahau which are now far from Earth.
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