![]() ![]() NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office identified the trajectories of thousands of near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters in size and determined that none have a significant chance to hit Earth in the next century. Of course, neither 2001 FO32 nor any other known asteroid poses any danger to Earth for the next 100 years. ![]() Roy Gal, IRTF associate astronomer, said 2001 FO32 might not necessarily cause a mass extinction event if it struck the planet - the Chicxulub Impactor, the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, was about 30 times larger - but said it still could be considered “a city-destroyer.” Rayner said it is estimated to be 500 meters in diameter - roughly the length of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier - with a mass of about 200,000 metric tons. Rayner said a meteorite airburst is comparable to a nuclear detonation - a 1908 incident in Russia that involved the probable airburst of a meteorite between 50 meters and 190 meters wide leveled nearly 1,000 square miles of forest.Ģ001 FO32 is considerably larger than that one, however. “Or it could be something called a carbonaceous chondrite, which is really interesting, and more volatile.”īecause carbonaceous chondrites can contain certain amounts of water, they are liable to explode in the atmosphere, which can be more dangerous than a direct surface impact under certain circumstances. “You could have asteroids that are mostly iron or stony asteroids, and those are more likely to burn up in the atmosphere,” Rayner said. ![]() John Rayner, director of the IRTF, said the telescope will be able to conduct a spectroscopic analysis of the asteroid in order to determine its composition.īy analyzing what Rayner called “the wiggles” of the spectrum of light reflected by the asteroid, Vishnu Reddy, a University of Arizona professor, will be able to determine what it’s made of - and how much damage it could do if it struck the planet. ![]()
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