Three Giant Asteroids Will Have Close Encounter With Earth on Christmas Day - Newsweek

Not one, not 2 but 3 immense asteroids are paying america a vacation visit, and are owed to velocity comparatively adjacent the Earth on Christmas Day. Relative to distances successful the beingness that is, truthful determination is nary crushed to panic.

The 3 asteroids are named 2022 YL1, 2013 YA14 and 2022 TE14, and are estimated to measurement betwixt 124 and 278 feet, betwixt 167 and 360 feet and betwixt 312 and 689 feet successful diameter, respectively.

Therefore, 2022 YL1 is astir the aforesaid size arsenic the wingspan of a Boeing 777, 2013 YA14 is akin successful standard to an American shot field, portion 2022 TE14 volition beryllium astir the aforesaid size arsenic a 50-story building. We'll telephone them asteroids A, B and C respectively.

Stock representation of aggregate asteroids approaching adjacent to Earth. On Christmas Day, 3 ample asteroids are forecasted to walk adjacent our planet. iStock / Getty Images Plus

All 3 asteroids orbit astir the sun, occasionally passing adjacent to the Earth. Most of the asteroids successful the star strategy orbit the prima successful the asteroid belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter, wherever determination are thought to beryllium astir 1.1 million.

"Asteroids are 'bits of a satellite that didn't happen' that orbit the prima betwixt Mars and Jupiter successful the main asteroid belt. However, arsenic they are comparatively small, asteroids tin beryllium disturbed rather easily, truthful they tin make orbits that transverse those of planets," Jay Tate, the manager of the U.K.'s Spaceguard Center observatory, previously told Newsweek.

Each of the asteroids volition walk by Earth astatine a region of 0.01959, 0.00691 and 0.02872 astronomical units, arsenic per NASA NEO Earth Close Approaches data. One astronomical unit, which is equivalent to the region betwixt the Earth and the sun—93 cardinal miles miles—meaning that asteroid A volition walk by astatine astir 1,820,000 miles distant from Earth, asteroid B astatine 642,000 miles and asteroid C astatine 2,670,000 miles.

While this whitethorn dependable highly acold away, successful presumption of the star system, the asteroids are coming reasonably person to Earth: the satellite is lone astir 238,900 miles away, portion our nearest neighbour planet, Venus, is presently 153.6 cardinal miles away.

Many of the asteroids that walk adjacent to Earth are classified arsenic near-Earth objects, and are designated arsenic specified based connected however adjacent they attack and however ample they are. There are astir 30,000 NEOs known to america truthful far, immoderate of which are besides successful different class called "potentially hazardous" objects. These are defined arsenic coming wrong 4.6 cardinal miles of Earth's orbit and besides measure greater than 460 feet successful diameter.

Therefore, lone asteroid C falls into the perchance hazardous category.

"The perchance hazardous designation simply means implicit galore centuries and millennia the asteroid's orbit whitethorn germinate into 1 that has a accidental of impacting Earth. We bash not measure these long-term, many-century possibilities of impact," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, previously told Newsweek.

Despite these Christmas asteroids' proximity to the Earth, the chances of them oregon immoderate of the different thousands of asteroids successful the star strategy hitting our satellite are precise small.

"No known asteroid poses a important hazard of interaction with Earth implicit the adjacent 100 years," states NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

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