NASA tracks mammoth 200-foot asteroid hurtling towards Earth! Check details
Asteroids are ancient space rocks that are considered to be left over from the early formation of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. But what are these space rocks made of? According to NASA, asteroids vary in the composition of their core materials. Some asteroids are made up of clay and silicate, while others are made up of silicate materials and nickel-iron, according to NASA. These space rocks can not only provide valuable resources such as water, metals, and other minerals. Scientists also study asteroids to learn more about the early solar system and the conditions that existed when the planets were forming.
NASA has recently issued an alert against one such mammoth asteroid that is set to make a close approach to Earth as soon as today.
The asteroid, designated as Asteroid 2023 JD2 by NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), will make its closest approach to Earth today, May 16, at a distance of 3.5 million kilometers. It is dashing towards Earth at a fearsome speed of 46891 kilometers per hour. Asteroid 2023 JD2 belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). What's concerning about this asteroid is that it is mammoth in size. With a width of nearly 200 feet, it can be compared to huge aircraft!
NASA tracks asteroids using a combination of ground-based and space-based telescopes. The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) scans the night sky for moving objects and reports any potential asteroid detections, while some space-based observatories use infrared sensors to detect asteroids and their characteristics.
The three primary classifications of asteroids are C-type, S-type, and M-type. C-type asteroids, which are composed primarily of carbon-rich
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