NASA images show asteroids flying past Earth

NASA has taken photos and videos of two huge asteroids that flew by our planet a few weeks ago.

The two asteroids, 2011 UL21 and 2024 MK, flew past Earth on June 27 and 29 and were captured by NASA’s Deep Space Network’s Goldstone planetary radar.

While 2011 UL21 flew past us at a distance of 4.1 million miles—about 17 times farther than the Moon—2024 MK came within 181,300 miles of our planet, orbiting the Moon at a distance of 238,900 miles.

2011 UL21 was much larger than 2024 MK, with a huge diameter of about a mile. 2024 MK, on ​​the other hand, was estimated to be between 394 and 853 feet in diameter—roughly the same size as the Washington Monument.

2011 UL21 was first spotted by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in 2011, but this is the first time it has come this close to Earth. Astronomers took this opportunity to take a closer look at the asteroid using the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Solar System Radar, and found that there is actually a small moon orbiting it at a distance of about 2 miles.

“About two-thirds of asteroids of this size are thought to be binary systems, and their discovery is particularly important because we can use measurements of their relative positions to estimate their relative orbits, masses and densities, providing key information about how they may have formed, Lance Benner, JPL chief scientist, said in a NASA statement.

NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar was also used to examine 2024 MK as it passed Earth, capturing images of it hurtling through space. This allowed astronomers to record details of the asteroid’s surface, including ridges and huge boulders. 2024 MK was discovered by scientists only 13 days before its closest approach to Earth.

“This was an extraordinary opportunity to explore the physical properties and obtain detailed images of a near-Earth asteroid,” Benner said.

Both 2011 UL21 and 2024 MK are classified as Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) due to their size and how close they came to Earth. NEOs are defined as any object that comes within 1.3 AU of the Sun (one AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, or roughly 93 million miles).

PHAs, on the other hand, are defined as coming within 4.6 million miles of Earth’s orbit and are also large enough to cause significant damage upon impact. They usually have an absolute magnitude of 22.0 or brighter, which generally corresponds to a diameter of about 460 feet or greater.

Fortunately, none of these asteroids will pose a threat to our planet in the future.

“Asteroid 100-200 m [330-650 feet] on average it would cause a regional disaster, destroying a small country, but with resulting global consequences in terms of the global economy and “globalization,” previously Jay Tate, director of the Spaceguard Centre, an observatory in the United Kingdom. he said Newsweek.

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office states that “no known asteroid poses a significant risk of impact on Earth within the next 100 years”.

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