MEXICO: A large asteroid passed dangerously close to the Earth and scientists say this if it was a bit closer, it could have caused catastrophic damage to the planet.
The object known as 2014-YB35 passed by Earth at 06:21 UTC at a distance of 2.8 million miles, or 11.7 lunar distances (11.7 times further away than the moon is to the Earth). The asteroid traveled at 10.16 km/s (about 23,000 mph) but scientists at the Catalina Sky Survey have been observing and tracking it since December 17, 2014, when it was named.
While this is the 13th object to pass near Earth in 2015 alone, it is the largest at just over 500 meters in diameter. Researchers say that it would take an object about 1 km in diameter to wipe out the entire planet, so this one was being watched closely since its discovery.
If the asteroid were to hit the Earth, it is said to have the explosive power of 15,000 megatons of TNT. “With something like YB35, we are looking at a scale of global destruction, something that would pose a risk to the continuation of the planet,” said Bill Napier, professor of astronomy at the UK’s University of Buckinghamshire. “These events are, however, very rare; it is the smaller yet still very damaging impacts which are a very real threat.”
The largest explosion from an asteroid in recorded history happened in 1908 near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Russia. Although the 60-meter-wide asteroid burst in the air before hitting the Earth’s surface, it’s still considered an impact event that measured in at around 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
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