A small asteroid will pass harmlessly close to Earth tomorrow… details

Written by Mahmoud Ragheb

Thursday, March 16, 2023 04:00 AM

And the Astronomical Society in Jeddah said in a statement that the asteroid (2023 EY) has a diameter of 18 meters, is moving at a speed of 9.1 kilometers per second, and is 239,356 kilometers away (11:39 am GMT), and will not be visible to the naked eye.

Asteroid (2023 EY) is included in the list of near-Earth objects, which includes any asteroid that intersects with Earth’s orbit. These asteroids are closely monitored, and thanks to high-precision observations and astronomical calculations, their orbits are regular. known with a high degree of accuracy.

And if the asteroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere from the collision course and disintegrates at a low altitude, it can release a lot of energy, causing a shock wave in the sky that can break the windows of buildings and lead to small falls. Remnants of that space rock can land on Earth’s surface in the form of meteorites, as happened in Russia in 2013, where it broke up.

Take advantage of such opportunities to learn more about the nature of asteroid formation, as these bodies are like a time machine from the remnants of our solar system’s formation, preserving many of the secrets of that era. Tell us more about the origin of our planet. In addition, observing the motion of the asteroid is an excellent opportunity to test international capabilities to detect and monitor near-Earth objects, and to assess our ability to respond together to any real asteroid threat in the future.