At a speed of 76 thousand km/h: a hazardous dual double asteroid flies to the ground

Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! Monday can be a hard day, because according to NASA forecast, at about 4 am in Kiev, June 12, a double asteroid called 1994 XD will come to Earth. Asteroids are considered to be the fragments of planets, which were created in the solar system more than 4 billion years ago.

Some of them could be part of the planet that never appeared in our star system, and they are concentrated in orbit around the sun in the space between the two planets: Mars and Jupiter. But sometimes these asteroids can change the trajectory of their flight, and their orbit begins to intersect with the orbits of other planets, such as Earth. As a result, such space stones become the Earth asteroids.

According to scientists, more than 1 million asteroids are in the solar system in general, many of which continue to be opened. As for the Earth Space Stones, astronomers have already found about 31 thousand such objects. Those asteroids, which are at least 140 meters in size and approach from the Earth to a distance of 7 to 7. 5 million km, are considered to be potentially dangerous space stones. That is, they can threaten our planet. And such asteroids are approximately 2300.

Such a potentially dangerous asteroid is considered 1994 XD, which fulfills a full rotation around the sun for 3. 5 years. Its size scientists estimate in the range between 370 and 830 meters (and accurately determine the size of these stones is difficult because they are quite dull and poorly reflecting sunlight). Therefore, if the 1994 asteroid XD can indeed be 830 meters wide, it means that it is even a little more than the highest building in the world - Burj Khalifa in Dubai (height 828 m).

According to scientists, this asteroid will fly to the ground at a distance of 3. 1 million km, while the speed of its flight is striking 76 thousand km/h (the ball flies 27 times slower). This space stone will be 8 times further than a month from Earth and still belongs to the class of dangerous asteroids. The fact is that such stones can change the direction of their path at any time under the influence of different cosmic factors and theoretically fly directly to our planet.

As already known by scientists, it is a double space stone. This means that a small satellite rotates around the large asteroid. According to NASA, the 1994 XD asteroid should bypass our planet without causing it any harm, that is, a collision with the land should not happen. According to scientists, if such an asteroid, such as 1994 XD, will really fall to Earth, then a regional catastrophe will occur.