Be Aware Giant Asteroid 175 metres wide to pass-by Earth Thursday, October 2024. No Worries!

The asteroid is predicted to pass by Earth without consequences. NASA assures that there is no risk to Earth from this incident.

What is it, and why is it important?

NEO:                                  2002 NV16

Distance from Earth:                    4,520,000 km (At a safe distance beyond the Moon’s orbit.)

The asteroid passing our Earth has sparked interest because it helps in the study of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). Studying such asteroids will benefit NASA and other Space organizations in their efforts to improve defence strategies against Near-Earth objects (NEOs).

What are NEOs?

A NEO is any space object near the earth’s orbit, about 195 million kilometres from the Sun. Moreover, their size matters, but most of the asteroids range between a few meters and 40 km wide. PHAs are asteroids wider than 140 meters that approach Earth’s orbit. NEOs are generally either asteroids or comets.

NEOs in recent times

A much wider Asteroid went past earth on 18^th of October 2024. Though it went by at 4,61,000 Km, it was still considered a NEO because of its proximity and size of around 216 meters in diameter, in astronomical terms. NASA and others carefully monitored and studied it as part of their planetary defence efforts. It is estimated, that 16 known asteroids passed closer to Earth than Moon, in September 2024!.

How does NASA Track them?

These Space organizations use both ground-based and space-based telescopes to track NEOs. NASA’s NEO program has catalogued around 34,000 NEOs so far and is continuously adding to the list.

NEOs are tracked based on:

• Size
• Speed
• Orbital path

Primary objective is to identify if an NEO has potential to collide with Earth and cause significant damage.

Note that many asteroids much smaller in size regularly collide with Earth without much damage.

Some of NASA’s tracking methods

Goldstone Solar System Radar

These belong to the Deep Space Network and are ground-based telescopes that track NEOs by capturing detailed asteroid images. It has been used in the past to track 2024ON and 2024MK NEOs.

NEO wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE)

These are outer atmosphere, space-based equipment originally meant to observe galaxies and cool stars and are now being used to track NEOs not visible to telescopes. They use infrared signatures to track those that are dark. They have till now catalogued 1,50,000 solar system objects and more than 3,000 NEOs.

NEO Surveyor

To be launched in 2027 is a next-generation comet and NEO detection technology. It is an Infrared space telescope with a special application of planetary defence on the lines of NEOWISE. It will be used for the early detection of hazardous NEOs with greater accuracy and precision.

NASA’s Planetary Defence programs

Most NEOs are not risky and do not collide with Earth. However, early detection and defence systems are always necessary and crucial.

PDCO-Planetary Defence and Coordination Office is the organization responsible for logging and assessing NEOs that have the potential to affect Earth.

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is a state-of-the-art mission in planetary defence. It demonstrated that an asteroid’s path could be diverted or changed by impacting it with a speeding spacecraft. This is being used with provided confidence in future defence against NEOs.

On similar grounds, the Hera Mission, led by ESA (European Space Agency), is also studying and building its own defence systems.

Public interest and its role in such missions

These missions are expensive and are considered basic research in their inception phase. Later, they may become technology but these missions are necessary. Incidents like Chelyabinsk meteor explosion over Russion in 2013, which resulted in property damage and injuries, even though the asteroid was just 20 meters wide, calls for these missions and projects.

Though most of the NEOs pass by Earth without any adverse effects, incidents like Chelyabinsk call for an early detection and correction of potential NEOs. This will enable either a complete diversion or evacuation of the areas of impact to reduce the damages.

The public interest in these is rising, especially due to easy access to news over social media and the internet. Besides, it is the taxpayers money which is also being utilized in these missions and they have a right to know how it is being utilized.

Conclusion: Once again, Asteroid 2002 NV16 is bound to bypass Earth.

We are seeing unprecedented collaborative efforts from around the globe in these space missions, such as DART, Hera, and many others in progress. As with other scientific domains, space science, especially space defence technologies, is bound to prosper and succeed. We will be better prepared for the slight chance that there will be collisions in the future.