On the morning of July 25th, when many Chinese arrived at the company in the morning and were ready to start a day’s work, an asteroid that could destroy a city just passed the earth, and its name was also called "2019 OK".
According to the authoritative American astronomical magazine "Astronomy" reported on July 25th, an asteroid with a diameter of 57-130 meters passed the Earth at a close distance at 1: 22 am GMT)7 on July 25th (9: 22 Beijing time), with a speed of 88,500 kilometers per hour.
Because the asteroid’s orbit to the earth is close to the sun, which affects the observation of astronomical telescopes, scientists only discovered it one day before it came to the earth.
"Astronomy" magazine said that this asteroid called "2019 OK" is only 72,500 kilometers away from the Earth, which can almost be regarded as "passing by". In contrast, the average distance from the earth to the moon is about 384,403 kilometers. Therefore, the distance from the asteroid to the earth this time is only about one-fifth of the average distance between the earth and the moon.
In terms of size, New York Post reported on July 29th that this asteroid with a diameter of 57-130 meters may be the largest asteroid that has passed through the Earth in the past 10 years.
Australia’s "Sydney Morning Herald" quoted Alan Duffy, an astronomy professor, as saying on July 26 that if this asteroid accidentally falls to the earth, the energy generated by its explosion is 30 times the power of Hiroshima atomic bomb, which can "destroy a city".
Astronomy magazine reported that in 2013, a meteorite with a diameter of 20 meters landed in Chelyabinsk, Russia. When it passed through the atmosphere, it rubbed and burned, exploded and produced a lot of debris, forming the so-called "meteorite shower". In the falling area, the windows of many buildings were broken. The Russian side said that the incident caused more than 1,600 injuries and economic losses of about 1 billion rubles (about 108 million yuan).
Michael brown, an astronomy professor at Monash University in Australia, said: "It (an asteroid) is surprisingly close to the earth, which is a big thing." However, Astronomy magazine reported that an observatory in Brazil only observed the asteroid the day before it came to Earth. Astronomy pointed out that, generally speaking, observation platforms around the world will issue trajectory predictions when asteroids are far away from the Earth. If this asteroid is likely to hit the earth, these observation platforms will also give early warning to help avoid the possible disaster caused by asteroid impact.
But this time, the asteroid came to the line near the earth, and it had to pass through the sun, which affected the observation. "Astronomy" magazine analogy said that this is just like a baseball player can’t see the ball from the sun, and the telescope will also be affected when observing celestial bodies near the sun.
For asteroids that may hit the earth in the future, scientists say they have found a way. According to a report by CBS)7 on July 29th, at a news conference held by NASA in April this year, Lori Glazer, a planetary science expert of NASA, said: "If an asteroid is going to pass through the earth’s orbit, we only need to change its speed slightly to make it faster or slower, so as to avoid collision."
Comprehensive observer People’s Daily client
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