A very special asteroid will pass very quickly near Earth on Friday, and the special part is the size of the asteroid, which is the size of a building. Fortunately, there is no danger of impact.
The asteroid, called 2023 HT4, has a diameter of 76 meters, which puts it on the same level as a high-rise building. The celestial body will fly by on Friday at a speed of more than 32,000 km/h, but we have no reason to fear, because at its closest point it will be at a distance of 6 million kilometers from Earth, according to NASA calculations.
This asteroid also passed near Earth in March 2015 and will return in 2031.
NASA has cataloged many near-Earth asteroids and publishes their lists. On May 21, a celestial body called 2023 JK will approach Earth within a million kilometers (that is, six times closer than the asteroid on May 12). The essential difference is that its diameter is much smaller: 40 meters.
What are asteroids and how many types are there?
Asteroids are the remnants of planetesimals, or small planets, from the early days of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. They were supposed to form a planet, but Jupiter’s strong gravity prevented them. Asteroids are very useful in space exploration because they are assumed to have remained unchanged since the formation of the solar system, and if we study them, we can learn important things about the formation of space.
The term “asteroid” means “star-like” and caught on because, unlike planets, which at the time looked like discs in telescopes, the newly discovered objects could be distinguished from stars only by their motion.
Most asteroids are made entirely of rock, some are metallic, and some are a combination of the two. Spectral analysis led to the classification of asteroids into three branches: C-type (rich in carbon), S-type (rich in silicates), and M-type (rich in metals).
About three-quarters of asteroids are C-type, with S-type asteroids accounting for 15% of the total. S-type asteroids contain nickel, iron and magnesium.
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Source: Hot News
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