Nearly 3,000 asteroids discovered near Earth by 2023 | View NASA's top goals

In November alone, no fewer than thirteen such space rocks flew past Earth: sixteen in October, thirteen in September, three in August, two in July, seven in May and ten in April this year.

Meanwhile, data from the Minor Planet Center, the internationally recognized clearinghouse for small-body position measurements, shows that 2,818 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered this year, as of December 12, 2023. ​​A total of 33,884 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered. so far by NASA.

5 asteroids approach on December 15

1. Airplane-sized asteroid 2023

2. Airplane-sized asteroid 2023 WV23 is likely to fly by Earth at a distance of nearly 1,990,000 km

3. Airplane-sized asteroid 2023

4. Airplane-sized asteroid 2023 XL4 is likely to fly by Earth at a distance of nearly 4,3,80,000 km

5. House-sized asteroid 2023

The 5 most dangerous asteroids on NASA's list

The five most dangerous asteroids that NASA has tracked in the solar system are:

1. Bennu: The near-Earth asteroid Bennu currently poses the greatest risk of impacting our planet. According to Living ScienceNASA estimates that when Bennu makes a close approach to Earth on September 24, 2182, there is a 0.037 percent (or 1 in 2,700) chance that the asteroid will impact our planet.

2. 29075 (1950 DA): Asteroid 29075 (1950 DA), which is said to be the “second riskiest object,” currently has “a 0.0029 percent chance – or 1 in 34,500 – of impacting Earth on March 16, 2880.”

READ ALSO: NASA launches spacecraft to explore metal-rich asteroid Psyche; This is what it expects to find

3. 2023TL4: Astronomers estimate that 2023 TL4 has a 0.00055 percent (or 1 in 181,000) chance of hitting Earth on October 10, 2119.

4. FT3 2007: This is defined as a 'lost asteroid'. Astronomers haven't seen it since 2007. NASA predicts the asteroid has a 0.0000096 percent – ​​or 1 in 10 million – chance of hitting Earth on March 3, 2030.

5. 1979XB: This asteroid has not been seen for about 40 years and therefore has a poorly understood orbit. According to Living Science According to the CNEOS report, CNEOS scientists estimate it has a 0.000055 percent — or 1 in 1.8 million — chance of hitting Earth on December 14, 2113.

Here are a few huge asteroids that zoomed past Earth near Earth in 2023:

1. Asteroid (139622) 2001 QQ142 passed safely by Earth on December 6, 2023 at a distance of 5,520,500 km from Earth's surface. This asteroid was about the size of Vatican City, an official from the European Space Agency's Planetary Defense office said. It was discovered in 2001 and will be back in 2045, the official said.

2. Asteroid 2023 BU, about the size of a box truck, had a “very close encounter” with Earth in January this year. Discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisovm, this asteroid had zoomed over the southernmost tip of South America just 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away.

3. Recently discovered Asteroid 2023 NT1, was spotted on July 15 by the Atlas Observatory in South Africa. Astronomers there say it was up to 60 meters in size. The asteroid was traveling at an estimated speed of 86,000 km/h and reached a radius of 60,000 miles around the planet – about 1/4 the distance from the moon to Earth on July 13, NASA said. However, it was not discovered until July 15, as it had approached Earth during the day.

4. Asteroid 2023 DZ2reportedly “big enough to wipe out a city”, flew between the orbits of the Earth and the Moon in March 2023. BBCastronomers called it a once-in-a-decade event. It had passed within 175,000 km of Earth after flying past the moon.

5. Asteroid 1994 XDThe building, estimated to have a diameter of between 370 and 830 meters, was potentially about as tall as Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, according to several reports. HT Tech previously reported that NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office had warned that the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth on June 12, at a distance of just 3.1 million kilometers.

What are near-Earth asteroids?

Near-Earth asteroids are space rocks with orbits close to Earth's. Asteroids that actually cross Earth's orbital path are known as Earth-crossers, NASA explains.

Do they pose a threat to life on Earth?

According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, most near-Earth objects have orbits that don't take them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of collision. However, a small portion of them – called potentially dangerous asteroids – require more attention.

“These objects are defined as asteroids that are more than 450 feet (140 meters) in size and enter orbits that take them within 4.5 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit around the Sun,” the JPL explains.

So far, NASA is not aware of any asteroid or comet that is currently on a collision course with Earth, so the chance of a major collision is quite small. “As far as we can tell, it's unlikely that any large object will hit Earth in the next few hundred years,” JPL says.

In the meantime a report has arrived Space.com said in May 2023 that astronomers have determined that Earth is unlikely to be struck by such an object for at least a thousand years.

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Published: Dec 15, 2023 8:21 PM IST