New Asteroid Could Hit Earth in 2046 4l1751

According to the European Space Agency (ESA) and its Near-Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC), a newly discovered asteroid has a small chance of colliding with Earth in a few years. 22255s

A NEOCC, as one of the main planetary defense offices of the ESA, has a portal where they publish the number of discovered asteroids and comets, together with their respective probabilities of collision with the EARTH.

According to your risk list, the asteroid 2023DW has the estimate of 1 em 625 of colliding with our planet on Valentine's Day in 2046. Despite this low probability, for some astronomers, this asteroid may present a high risk, as we still do not have much information about it.

According to some information available, this asteroid is the approximate size of an Olympic swimming pool, about 50 meters long, although it is not one of the largest if it collided with Earth it would manage to cause some damage.

In a post on your profile Twitter a NASA informed that it is already tracking the asteroid and as it was recently discovered there are some uncertainties about details and trajectory, but most of them will be remedied with the production of more data about the object.

We've been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2046. Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future . (1/2) pic.twitter.com/SaLC0AUSdP

- NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 7, 2023

Possible impact is still speculation 49696y

IMPACT SUCCESS! watch from #DARTMISsion's DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth. pic.twitter.com/7bXipPkjWD

- NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022

It is important to that, as it is a newly discovered asteroid, the estimate of a possible impact with Earth is speculative.

When a new object is discovered, scientists do analysis and initial calculations to just restrict the information about it. Right now they are looking for the most precise information about the size and whether its orbit could cause it to collide with Earth.

This is a process that can end up taking a few weeks to complete. According to initial data discovered about the asteroid, it is not large enough to cause catastrophic damage in the event of a collision.

But if the 2023DW presented some kind of risk to the planet, NASA or other space program agencies have some systems to change the orbit of the object, thus preventing the collision with Earth, with the DART spacecraft being an example of a vehicle developed for this purpose.

DART is a spacecraft designed to collide and alter, even slightly, the orbit of an object. heavenly, in a recent test carried out by NASA, they managed to reach the asteroid Dimorphous. According to the test results, even if minimally, it is possible to change the orbit with this new mechanism.

Text revised by Dacio Castelo Branco in 09 / 03 / 2023

Source: NEOCC

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