A Large Asteroid Is Likely to Collide with the Earth in 2084

Environment | October 10, 2019, Thursday // 11:34|  views

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The European Space Agency has announced that a large asteroid could hit the Earth in 65 years.

The asteroid is expected to pass extremely close to Earth in 2084, but gravitational interference from other planets is likely to send it directly into our atmosphere.

The list of risky celestial bodies includes any cosmic object that is more than zero likely to hit the Earth, and the asteroid in question - the 2019 SU3 - is the fourth largest object on the list with approximately 46 feet in diameter - smaller than a meteorite that struck the Russian Chelyabinsk in 2013.

According to the ESA, the asteroid has a 1 in 152 chance of colliding with our planet, which astronomers predict could happen during or around September 2084. However, experts say its size is not large enough to cause a major catastrophe , so we probably don't need to prepare our nuclear weapons.

ESA predicts the asteroid will travel past our planet at a distance of about 73,435 miles, near the moon's orbit (239,000 miles). Therefore, even the slightest gravitational influence from other planets can send it straight into the earth's atmosphere.

Because of this, the asteroid is included in the ESA risk list, which allows experts to monitor its movements closely, according to an article in Daily Mail.

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Tags: asteroid, ESA, The European Space Agency, collide, Earth

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