Astronomers are looking with better and better technology, and thus they’re finding smaller and smaller asteroids skimming close to Earth. Astronomers with the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, detected a new asteroid on November 14, 2020. After an analysis of the space rock’s orbit, they realized its closest approach had occurred one day earlier, on Friday, November 13, 2020. Astronomers estimate its size as between 16 and 36 feet (5-11 meters). The space rock swept closest at just 238 miles or 383 km over Earth’s surface)! It passed at about the same height as the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS).
This asteroid did come very close to Earth. It came so extremely close that it was passing Earth’s thermosphere, an atmosphere layer at 50 to 440 miles (80 to 700 km) above Earth’s surface. Passing at just 238 miles high, the asteroid was not far from the 50 to 70 miles height where most space rocks disintegrate as meteors. In fact, had it penetrated Earth’s atmosphere, the space rock would have caused an impressive meteor, visible even in broad daylight. Was Earth in danger? No. A space rock of this size has no chance of reaching Earth intact; instead, our atmosphere protects us. If it had been closer to the 50-to-70 mile asteroid-disintegration height in the atmosphere, asteroid 2020 VT4 would have mostly vaporized, due to friction with the air, although there would have been a good probability of fragments from the asteroid reaching Earth’s surface as meteorites, in this case most likely over the ocean.
Source: This asteroid just skimmed Earth’s atmosphere
16 Nov 2020, 11:05 am
