NASA has notified that an asteroid will pass close to Earth at the end of this 2021, specifically on December 27. However, the probability that the asteroid will collide with our planet is very low.
The deflection method was unsuccessful.
The celestial body is marked with the Apollo classification, which, according to NASA , is the most dangerous. A space agency tracker has calculated that, with its current trajectory, it will approach about 4.5 million kilometers (more than twelve times the distance between our planet and the Moon ) .
Although it will not be a problem at first, it is estimated that an asteroid the size of the one that will approach Earth later this month could kill approximately 6 million people.
In addition to the human damage, there would also be environmental damage: much land would be left barren and many tsunamis and earthquakes would take place . It could be said that the collision of an asteroid with the Earth would have an impact similar to that of a nuclear bomb.
An example of what could happen is the 17-meter meteorite that exploded in the atmosphere in 2013 near Chelyabinsk ( Russia ). This celestial body caused material damage in about 7 thousand buildings.
The main drawback of considerably small asteroids is that they are difficult to locate in advance. At the moment, at the John Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA ) it is being investigated virtually and successfully, but they warn that, if the calculations were to fail, the catastrophe could not be stopped .
The asteroid that NASA’s tracker has calculated to approach Earth, we know is more impressive in size than it was in 2013. According to BGR , the space object is the size of the Washington Monument – which is 169 meters high. -, so its discovery has allowed us to know what its trajectory will be like well in advance.
It is estimated that in 2028 an asteroid also of the Apollo classification will pass only 240,000 kilometers from Earth. Therefore, missions like NASA’s DART could become essential in less than a decade.
