On 29th of April, asteroid called 1998OR2 will transit at 6 millions km far from Earth

Be quiet... there is NO DANGER! As always in this circumstances, it's usually screaming to danger, but it's not true. Next months, more precisely on 29th of April, the asteroid 1998 OR2 will transit at about 6 millions of km far from Earth. As written in a previous article of mine, a distance of 5-6 millions of Km is very poor in the Universe, but in this case is sufficient to not allowed the asteroid to put our planet in danger. It will be visible by a binocular or small telescopes.

The NEA - Near Earth Asteroids

Well, this asteroid is not alone. During all the time we orbit around the Sun, we can do a rendezvous with this type of objects. They called Near Earth Asteroids cause their orbits get close to Earth's and, sometimes, they intersect our. The most famous are Eros and Itawaka. Another one is Apophis, become famous around 2003-2005 due to an hypothetical impact with Earth in 2036 (fake news).

Are they dangerous?

There are approximately 11.000 NEAs, but only 1500 are considered dangerous, but the most part of this 1500 asteroids have a diameter less than 1 km. Their orbits are irregular, it means that in a period between 10 and 100 millions of years they could collide with internal planet of the Solar System or, on the contrary, they could been thrown out of the Solar System, due to a too close pass with a planet. According with statistics, asteroids with a less-than-1km diameter hit our planet every 1 million year, those of 5km diamater every 10 million years. We all know about dinosaurs, extinguished due to an impact between Earth and an asteroid and a comet. Yes, but it happened 65 million years ago! But every month small "stones" (called them asteroids is too much) impact with our planet and maybe you can see them leaving a coloured trail. But they are not absolutely dangerous. The dangerous level of impacts is established by the Torino Scale (even by the Palermo Scale, but it's more complex)

Recent (and future) close passages

23rd of March 1989: the asteroid Asclepius got close to the Earth until 684.000 km, passing through the point were Earth had been 6 hours before! If it hit us, it could have caused the biggest explosion ever.

18th of March 2004: it's called 2004 FH, a very small "asteroid" with a 30 meters diameter and it passed at 42600km close to the Earth. It's estimated that objects like this pass near to Earth approximately every 2 years

6th of October 2008: a 4 meters diameter stones, entered in the atmosphere and burst over the sky of Sudan. For the first time it was possible to predict a collision with sufficient advance to advertise the authority of nations interested by the collision

22nd of June 2011: the asteroid 2011 MD has been discovered just few days before its close pass to Earth. It passed on 27th of June at a distance of only 12000 km by the surface of Earth.

16th of March of 2880: yes, not a mistake. In this date we will can have an impact with the asteroid 1950DA, discovered in 1950. After its discover, it wasn't possible calculate its orbit and they lost it. It has been discovered again in 2000. But it's not a problem of ours 

See you next time