This Friday , asteroid 2014 YB35 will hurtle past Earth . Despite thescaremongeringof some news sales outlet , the passage wo n’t be incredibly snug , but 2014 YB35 is super large and its recent discovery raises questions of what else is lurking undiscovered in the darkness .
Asteroids large enough to be observed bysky surveysfrequently make close approaches to Earth . In the last twelvemonth , we have see a 20 - meter - wide ( 65.5 foot ) asteroid pass closer than the lunation . In January , the 500 - cadence - across-the-board ( 1,640 ft ) 2004 BL 86 passed by atthree times the aloofness of the moon . And the same night that 2014 YB35 makes its pass , a much smaller asteroid will bepassing slightly closerto Earth .
2014 YB35 will not be getting tightlipped than 4.5 million kilometer ( 2.8 million miles ) , which is 11.7 time the aloofness of the moonshine . However , with a diam estimated at up to 1,000 K ( 3,000 substructure ) , it is the sort of thing that could do serious damage if it did collide with Earth . Asteroids this size would n’t cause a spheric catastrophe on the musical scale of the dinosaur - killer , but the price would still be annihilating for hundreds of kilometre around , secrete energy equivalent to athousand of the largest nuclear dud . count on location , we could be treated to an earthquake similar to thelargest ever record . Tsunamis , firestorms , acid rain and dust - induced winters are at least possible bonus extra .
This is n’t the last we will see of 2014 YB35 either . In 2033 , it will be back for a pass nine synodic month distances aside , with another approach in 2128 .
Passes like this offer astronomers an opportunity to get a line more about asteroids ; in January , wediscovered that 2004 BL 86 is keep company by a Sun Myung Moon . This time the Goldstone Observatory , California and Arecibo telescopeswill be watching .
The perturbing scene to 2014 YB35 lies in the first part of its name . It was only last class , December 27 to be exact , that theCatalina Sky Surveydetected it . This is so recent that it has yet to be assigned an asteroid number and size of it estimates still diverge . Although 2014 YB35 ’s reach takes itout past Mars , it is not some long point target whose arrival we can not predict .
In 1998 , NASA took on the goal of discovering 90 % of the close - Earth asteroid larger than 1 kilometer ( 0.6 miles ) across . While we are thought to beapproaching this goal — if it has not already been attain — novel discoveries do as reminders that we arestill short of 100 % . Meanwhile , smaller objects adequate to of doing serious local harm keep to be detected at arate of around a thousand a year .
If this kind of thing bothers you , you may help by using the recently releasedsoftware appthat provide amateur to assist in the breakthrough of potentially hazardous objects .
