An asteroid will pass close to Earth in April. Asteroids are frequently passing close by Earth, with around 30,000 of them identified so far. In this way, NASA usually identifies those that are potentially dangerous for passing within 0.05 astronomical units of distance from our orbit and this is the case of the asteroid 2012 KY3, which will pass in April.
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NASA identifies all asteroids that pass within 0.05 astronomical units of our orbit, or rather 7.40 million kilometers with more than 140 m in diameter, asteroids potentially dangerous. That's because for her, this distance is very close and therefore worth the attention.
And according to NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO), in April, one of these asteroids will be passing dangerously by Earth.
The approaching asteroid
According to NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) database, asteroid 436774 (2012 KY3), measures between 539 and 1,199 meters wide and has a scheduled date for its passage on April 13 at 4.66 million kilometers. It is a huge asteroid, the average size of Navy Pier, a 1,010 m long pier on the coast of Chicago.
However, for those who have already entered into despair, there is no need, after all, scientists have already ruled out the possibility of a collision with Earth. The monitoring is done because for the astronomers of the International Asteroid Alert Network this monitoring is a good practice thinking about planetary defense, after all it is through it that it is possible to prevent possible collisions.
planetary defenses
NASA and space agencies as a whole normally study all objects in space that could pose a danger to Earth. A famous mission thinking about this aspect is DART, which led NASA to identify asteroid Dimorphos and change its direction.
However, although it has been successful on other occasions, there are also possibilities that this system will not be able to detect some threats in time, such as for example, the asteroid 2023 BU, which was only discovered just a week before its passage by an astronomer who was not even a professional. The asteroid was about the size of a truck and passed extremely close to Earth, just 3600 kilometers away.