If you have seenanything onlineabout an impending collision between a great asteroid and our satellite , worry not . A place rock is not hit us today and its size come out to have been exaggerated .
The object , name 2009 JF1 , is indeed deemed a hazardous asteroid , so it might finally hit our planet one day in the distant hereafter but for now we ’re safe .
After its discovery in 2009 , it was so dim it depart unobserved for long time . Based on the original reflexion there was a small chance that it might hit our major planet , perchance on May 6 . Mostly it was wait to pass by a vast length , but the doubt was so big it put it in the risk family , make its elbow room onto the European Space Agency ’s ( ESA ) Near - Earth object Coordination Centernotable risk list .
However , back in February ESA booted it out of the top 10 , thanks to further observance by itsGaia satellite . This time the data showed that it was in reality onlyaround 10 meters(33 understructure ) across , based on the light it reflects . That ’s smaller than the bolide that exploded over the Russian city ofChelyabinsk in 2013 .
" [ T]he asteroid has now lose its gibbosity in our risk list , and is relegated together with other more routine objects that mystify minimal threat , " ESAsaidat the time .
It ’s not even absolved when it will pass us by . stargazer desire to respect it during the upcoming mean solar day to well reduce the incertitude of the current stuffy passage , includingdistance and the exact date and time . NASA and ESA both currently have it asMay 15 , give or take a few days .
" Indeed , the reason for the escort uncertainty is motivated by the current modified cognition in the orbit of the asteroid , " an ESA Planetary Defence Office representative told IFLScience . " What we are almost sure of is that the possible impact on the 6thof May could be take out ( impingement chance of just 1 / 1,700,000 ) . "
That ’s one in 1.7 million , making it extremely improbable that it will come into close contact with our planet .
We will have another astronomic visitant on Monday , too , when asteroid2006 JF42zooms past . At a rather larger 380 to 860 meters ( 1,247 to 2,822 feet ) across it would do much more terms if it hit us . gratefully it will navigate past at the closest coming of 5.7 million kilometers ( 3.5 million knot ) , which is more than 14 times the distance between Earth and the Moon .
This is n’t to say the risk of asteroid collision should be underestimated .
International government and blank agencies on a regular basis take part in a tabletop exercise on how to parcel out with incoming space rocks as part of the bi - annual Planetary Defense Conference . avowedly , Earth has n’t had much luck so far in deflect the asteroid , ensue inlarge clod of Europebeing annihilated andNew York city in ruins .
Perhaps we ’ll have better luck with NASA ’s first planetary defense mission tocrash into an asteroid and knock it off coursebefore it can reach us . NASA ’s DART mission launched last November and we ’ll find out if it work when it get at its address , asteroid Dimorphos , maybe in September this yr . Chinarecently announcedit is following cause with its own charge to crush into an asteroid in 2025 .
Just to be unmortgaged , there are no known objects with trajectories that take out Earth currently , but it ’s sound to be prepared . AsNASA puts it : " world-wide defence is find asteroids before they find us . "
