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Asteroid 2019 OK, Almost hits our Mother Earth!

Team StoryWeavers|September 17, 2019, 11:38 IST| 25

Do you know it’s possible for our Mother Earth to become uninhabitable? It can happen in just one single day, if a big enough asteroid hits the Earth! And we just managed to escape one such asteroid.

Let’s get the facts first to understand what happened. 

The moon is approximately 2,38,855 miles away from Earth. 

On July 25, 2019,  Asteroid 2019 OK passed within 45000 miles from the Earth, which is less than one-fifth of the distance to the Moon!

What’s the big deal, you may ask. Well, the last time an asteroid hit the Earth 65 million years ago, dinosaurs became extinct!

Did we not know about it before?

Not really. NASA scientists were tracking some asteroids, but it was not this one. 

It was discovered by the Brazilian SONEAR survey just days ago, and its presence was announced mere hours before it zoomed past our planet. The scientists at NASA were taken by surprise with this sudden change of events. Usually, scientists are able to spot 90 percent of asteroids, which are more than a kilometer wide, but this asteroid was not spotted as it was smaller, faster, and had an unusual orbit. 

Should we be worried about the future?

It just sounds like the plot of a Hollywood film, no one was aware of an upcoming danger and it hits the earth and destroys a significant part of our world (preferably say the US) Is that really possible? Experts say that it is possible, as we really don’t know how many of such asteroids are on orbits that intersect the Earth. But this episode does serve as a reminder to the real threats that these asteroids pose for us. NASA reports that it has done some training exercises on how to prepare for an impact, but there’s a strong ongoing debate for more international involvement, cooperation, and investment with regard to the detection and prevention of such scenarios.

Like this story? Read similar stories at The Learning Tree.

About the Author


Charu, a feminist and an accidental writer, is yet to master the art of writing about herself. Always curious to learn new stuff, she ends up spending a lot of time unlearning the incorrect lessons. She enjoys all sorts of stories – real, fictional, new, old, hers and would love hearing yours too. Feel free to ping her at storyweavers@byjus.com to share anything that you think is worth sharing.

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Comments



Gaurya Naik

June 5, 2020

Oh! My !God!????


ANIRUDH

April 24, 2020

O M G ! ☄??????


Sandesh kandhare

April 18, 2020

Thank you for this information


Akash

March 11, 2020

this fact caught my attention !???????????????


Akash

March 11, 2020

this fact caught my attention !


Akash

March 11, 2020

This was a interesting bit of information !thanks!


Satyam Chauhan

March 11, 2020

I am happy we are safe.??????
ISRO is the best????????????????


Amogh Kottada

February 27, 2020

Really interesting


Sai Vaibhav

November 6, 2019

We can escape by sitting in a big spaceship it should be big enough to load 5000 people


Yatharth Patil

October 5, 2019

Same here


Piyush umesh birajdar

October 3, 2019

How does asteroids form ?


Visvajith

September 25, 2019

Good information


Shabreen

September 24, 2019

O .m .g continue gives us so many
Information like this


Mithra

September 24, 2019

It was very informative.


Aditya ghule

September 22, 2019

Thanku for the lot information about astroid


Sourav J

September 20, 2019

OMG info!!!!!!!!????????


Likith

September 20, 2019

Very nice


ATHARV SINGH

September 17, 2019

ABOUT MY FAVORITE TOPIC – ASTRONOMY.
THANK YOU.


Aditya Jangid

September 17, 2019

This is very fantastic


Prithvi

September 16, 2019

For One second, my heart skipped a beat. Thanks to God as he saved us and our beautiful mother Earth.?????.
Best wishes to NASA for launching the space telescope.(NEOC) Near Earth object camera.???


Anuruth.R

September 16, 2019

hope you will continue giving such informations.


Anuj Kumar Gupta

September 14, 2019

How can we become an astronomer?


Akanksha

September 14, 2019

Thanks for the information


Charvi aggarwal

September 13, 2019

O.m.g ????


I ❤ harrypotter

September 12, 2019

Oh my God. Thank God we are saved! I really am scared of a fact that one asteroid hits us and we all die because I want to become an astronaut before I die!!!!!???


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