An unpredictable and therefore potentially dangerous celestial body is approaching our planet: asteroid 163 348 (2002 NN4).
NASA has informed the whole planet about the football stadium size asteroid, which at great speed is approaching the Earth. Experts have estimated that the mass of the asteroid reaches three billion tons. And given that it moves at a tremendous speed of 30 km/sec, the destruction that it can bring to the planet can be compared with the four atomic bombs dropped at one time on Hiroshima in 1945.
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But, as scientists have found out, this will happen if it hits Earth directly, and fortunately, it will fly by.
The asteroid 163 348 (2002 NN4), unlike some celestial bodies flying into our solar system, revolves around the Sun. Moreover, if, for example, a similar asteroid, 1998 OR2 safely flew past Earth on April 29, then there is one significant difference between it and 163 348 (2002 NN4).
So, 1998 OR2 also revolves around the Sun, but its orbit is built in such a way that even the lowest point of its trajectory (reggae) exceeds the highest point of the Earth’s orbit, its apogee. So, it passes over us, over the top of the Earth.
If we talk about the asteroid 163 348 (2002 NN4), then its trajectory of movement in some places already intersects the orbit of the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.
According to scientists, there is a very real possibility that this celestial body can collide with the Earth. There are even factors that can contribute to this accidental meeting.
Firstly, these are circumstances related to the name of the asteroid itself. Scientists give a proper name to those meteorites, asteroids, comets, and other space wanderers if the trajectory of their movement is calculated to the smallest detail and does not subject to change.
They are, for example, Ceres, Pallas, Hygea, Halley, Allende, and so on and so forth. But if scientists, even after months of studying the celestial body, are forced to correct their course of movement in the space in general, and at the same time, are still not convinced of the accuracy and predictability of its flight direction, then they assign these space objects a digital number with a letter designation in addition.
An asteroid that already has a potentially unstable trajectory, and even crosses, in addition, the Earth’s orbit is a very dangerous challenge to all living things on our planet. But it becomes even more dangerous precisely in the current days when not just a cosmic wind is coming from the Sun in all directions, but a cosmic rain. This is a very powerful factor in influencing a small asteroid by space standards, but rather impressive by the standards of earthlings. And this cosmic rain can easily shift or divert the course of 163 348 (2002 NN4), giving it a completely unpredictable direction of motion. Scientists, of course, do not predict a planetary catastrophe, but so far, nobody can say it for sure.