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An asteroid almost collides with Earth… “hidden by the sun” and scientists did not know its existence

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A scientific journal revealed a very exciting event that scientists monitored last week, as a small asteroid approached the Earth greatly and was about to collide with it, but the exciting thing is that scientists only observed it hours before it approached.

Astronomers considered that this approach was very large and dangerous “from a cosmic perspective only”, as a report published on “CNET” stated that the path of the space rock that crossed next to the Earth at the end of last month, specifically on the 24th of October, which The Earth passed over Antarctica at a distance of 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) from our planet, a distance considered closer than some satellites, which makes this asteroid the third closest asteroid to approach the planet without actually colliding with it.
A very small asteroid, but it opened the door to fears “widely”

According to the report published in the scientific journal “livescience”, scientists were not aware of the existence of the planet, which was called (Asteroid 2021 UA1), because it approached sideways to the Earth coming from the side of the sun, where the rays blocked the possibility of monitoring it, and it remained hidden and was not detected until 4 Hours from the moment it crossed from the nearest point of the planet Earth.

According to the sources, the size of the planet was relatively small, with a diameter of only 6.6 feet (about two meters), it was too small to pose a threat to Earth, as most of it would have burned before hitting the Earth, but the asteroid opened the door of fears wide open because it was not detected before it approached.

According to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), comets and asteroids that orbit within our cosmic neighborhood and approach Earth within 1.3 astronomical units (120.9 million miles, or 194.5 million km) are known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). ).

When is an asteroid dangerous to humans?

NASA notes that an asteroid or space object is considered dangerous when it has a diameter of at least 460 feet (140 meters).

Although the previous asteroid was not dangerous to humans, the incident opened a door to many questions, especially when the asteroid was not observed until hours ago, “Is there an asteroid heading towards Earth and hidden somewhere in this universe?”, Scientists wonder .
9800 dangerous asteroids around the cosmic neighborhood of the Earth

To date, NASA has identified about 27,000 near-Earth objects or asteroids, of which about 9,800 are 459 feet (140 meters) in diameter.

Although the planet “Asteroid 2021 UA1” was small, the other asteroids that approached Earth on November 2, are much larger, with the diameter of one of these space rocks about 56 feet (17 meters). Fortunately, these rocks will not come close to Earth.

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