Karan Talwar
The Asteroid is predicted to fly by us at a distance of 7.4 million kilometres from our planet. According to the Central for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA, it is not a threat.
The event of this passing 2021 CO247 was followed by a spectacular space show which happened on January 6th in which five other asteroids flew by Earth. A space rock which was nearly a km wide was also included in this pack of asteroid having the name 2008 AF4. It was classified as a “potentially hazardous” Apollo class asteroid by the CNEOS. Its travelling speed was 39,564 kmph.
The smaller asteroids included 2019 YB4, 2020 YA1, and 2020 YP4.
None of the asteroids was an immediate threat to our planet and will likely fly by at a very safe distance from us, according to NASA. These passed by earth with a distance of nearly 1 million to more than 2 million KM.
The CNEOS at NASA classifies any solar body as a Near-Earth Object (NEO) when their orbit around the Sun is 0.9 to 1.3 astronomical unit. It means, the orbits followed by these NEO are closer to the distance between the Earth and the Sun, therefore such space object comes in proximity to our planet’s orbit. They are generally just around each other there is no need for the orbits of such objects clashes with each other. Most of the NEOs are asteroids but a small portion is comets. There are around 20,000 known NEO asteroids, according to CNEOS.
NEOs are classified as “potentially hazardous” based on their size, closest estimated approach to Earth, and their, speed. Therefore large chunk of asteroids at a medium speed with a distance equal to the Moon is less dangerous/hazardous than a smaller asteroid drifting/flying into orbit at a very fast speed.
