NASA announces possible date of asteroid impact

  

NASA has announced the possible date of impact of an asteroid that could destroy the Earth.

 

The asteroid ‘2009 JF1’ has been considered by NASA as “potentially dangerous”.

The North American space agency, which has a list of space rocks at risk of colliding with Earth, has announced a date for the impact of this asteroid: 8.34am on May 6, 2022.

Through Sentry , a collision monitoring system, NASA has exhaustively observed the asteroid ‘2009 JF1’, classified as a Near Earth Object (NEO), which means that it is close enough to be considered a threat. The system classifies asteroids according to their size, speed, dimensions, and by year in which an impact is likely to occur.

“Some asteroids and comets follow orbital paths that take them much closer to the Sun than usual and, therefore, to the Earth,” NASA explains in a statement.

The Space Agency viewed it through Sentry in 2009 and estimates it to be around 13 metres in diameter.

Experts consider that the impact could cause an explosion equivalent to 230 kilotons of dynamite. However, it is estimated that there is a 0.026 per cent chance of the asteroid impacting.

Space agencies are currently working to develop missions to ‘attack’ these asteroids that pose a threat to the planet and divert them from their trajectory, this is the case of the DART spacecraft, which will be launched in mid-2021 to collide with Dimorphos, one of the most dangerous asteroids for Earth due to its characteristics.

DART belongs to NASA’s Hera mission which is carried out in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Jennifer Leighfield 

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