(ORDO NEWS) — The asteroid was discovered just 11 hours before the flyby.
Our planet is once again fantastically lucky. The asteroid flew just 8.5 thousand kilometers from us. This is closer than the fixed satellites you use to watch TV. For comparison: the Moon is at a distance of 300 thousand kilometers.
This asteroid (it was named 2022 FD1) entered the top 5 minor planets that have ever “scratched” the Earth‘s neighborhood. The closest flew on November 14, 2020 (383 km) – and, in theory, he could shoot down the ISS.
Could we do something, somehow prevent it? No. The asteroid was discovered just 11 hours before the flyby. During such a time, it is impossible to shoot a rocket or send a satellite at it in order to at least deflect the trajectory.
Despite the fact that astronomers have armed themselves with robotic telescopes that examine the sky without human intervention and analyze the picture themselves, there are many asteroids, but few of us. And we cannot notice dangerous objects on distant approaches.
A universal catastrophe would not have happened. Its size is three meters. Although the speed is more than 18 kilometers per second. And then the question is, what would he fall for. If it were for a serious infrastructure facility like a nuclear power plant, it would not have seemed enough.
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