Keeping An Eye on the SkyĮxperts regularly keep tabs on over 31,000 known asteroids in Earth’s vicinity however, scientists understand that solar blind spots are potentially problematic. Dashboard cameras famously captured footage of the event. Buildings and glass were damaged and shattered as a result, but luckily no one was killed. This isn’t even the first time it has happened! Tragically, 1,500 people were injured when a 59-long-foot asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. Unfortunately, near-Earth asteroids can be impossible to see in blind spots caused by the sun’s glare. Credit: Aleksandr Ivanov Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). What is even more comforting is that Earth should be safe from extinction-type asteroids for at least 1,000 years, according to experts.Ĭhelyabinsk meteor on February 15, 2013. Astronomers have determined that there is no imminent risk of an impact from 2023 NT1 in the next 10 years. The good news is that this asteroid is not large enough to be classified as a potentially hazardous object. ATLAS wasn’t the only system that failed to spot 2023 NT1 other telescopes around the world belatedly recorded the asteroid’s path as well, according to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. This system was created to track asteroids to prepare for possible impacts but was a little late to the party. It was not until July 15 when the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa spotted the space rock leaving Earth’s vicinity. This made the asteroid difficult to see in telescopes. The reason why scientists were unaware of the passing is because the asteroid traveled to Earth from a direction with a lot of sun glare. The space rock measured 200-feet wide and was approximately the size of a 20-story building. The asteroid, named 2023 NT1, zoomed by closer to Earth than to the moon on July 13 at a speed of approximately 53,00 mph, according to Live Science. Earlier this month, astronomers discovered that an asteroid the size of a skyscraper flew quite close to Earth-but they did not know about it until two days after the incident occurred.
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