Asteroid 2008 GO20 is set to fly close to Earth around 12:50 AM on July 26, according to Hanoi time.
2008 GO20 is being monitored by NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Scientists estimate that this asteroid could have a diameter ranging from 66 to 220 meters, although precise figures are not yet available. For comparison, the Washington Monument in the United States stands at 169 meters tall.
Simulation of an asteroid flying through space. (Photo: iStock).
As 2008 GO20 passes by our planet, it will travel at a speed of approximately 29,611 meters per second, which is faster than the Space Shuttle in orbit around Earth. Although this asteroid will be relatively close to Earth in terms of space, it poses no danger to humans. The closest distance between 2008 GO20 and Earth will be over 4.5 million kilometers, more than 11 times the distance to the Moon. True to its name, researchers first observed this asteroid in 2008.
CNEOS defines a near-Earth object as a comet or asteroid that passes through the vicinity of our planet at some point in its orbit around the Sun. Researchers are increasingly interested in asteroids because they are remnants from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.
If scientists can study the composition of the asteroid, they will gain insights into the materials that formed the planets in the Solar System. Monitoring asteroids also helps experts predict if they have the potential to collide with Earth. According to CNEOS, Earth receives about 100 tons of material from space each day, but this material is so small that it lands on the surface as tiny dust particles.
Every 10,000 years, Earth has the potential to collide with an asteroid larger than 100 meters in diameter. This could lead to disasters in the impact area, and the force of the impact could trigger tsunamis. With a rarer probability of several hundred thousand years, an asteroid larger than one kilometer could strike Earth, causing global catastrophe. Currently, scientists are developing technology to deflect asteroids away from Earth should they become a threat.
