“Potentially dangerous” asteroid flies past earth - with a corona face mask

A "potentially dangerous" asteroid raced past Earth on Wednesday. When observing the celestial body, the experts noticed a curiosity.

• The giant asteroid 52768 was discovered in 1998 by a NASA team.
• The space agency recently announced that the celestial body  would pass Earth .
• A curious conspicuousness is reminiscent of the Corona * pandemic in the asteroid.

Washington DC - The two-kilometer wide asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) flew past Earth on Wednesday morning (CET), giving astronomers the rare opportunity to closely track it by telescope. Already on Tuesday, the US space agency Nasa announced that the giant celestial body would move along the earth the following day at a comparatively short distance .

Asteroid flew past Earth on Wednesday - a crash was impossible

On Wednesday at 5.55 a.m. local time on the east coast of the United States ( 11.55 a.m.CEST ), the asteroid was closest to Earth, according to NASA, although the distance between the star and the Earth was basically unimaginable. Around 6.3 million kilometers separated the asteroid from our planet, which is about 16 times the distance from the moon to earth. A collision with the earth was therefore ruled out in advance by the experts  .

Have you been hearing about asteroid 1998 OR2's close approach on April 29? Rest assured that this asteroid will safely pass Earth by 3.9 million miles / 6.2 million km. Have other questions about #asteroids and #planetarydefense? Ask them using #askNASA! pic.twitter.com/a3WhttAoED

Asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2): Celestial bodies will probably make a comeback in 2079 

Asteroid 52768 was in July 1998 by a team of Nasa been discovered and as a  "potentially hazardous asteroid" was classified because it exceeds the size of 152 meters (500 feet) and at least eight million kilometers (equivalent to five million miles) from Earth orbit away is. Since its discovery, the space agency has been chasing him and has been able to predict the future movement of the celestial body.

"As a result (...) we can say with certainty that this asteroid will not come into contact with the earth in the next 200 years ." However, the asteroid will come closer to the earth in 2079 than on Wednesday, the distance will only be four times the distance to the moon. 

“Potentially more dangerous” asteroid passes Earth orbit: strange corona detail discovered

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico discovered a curiosity in the pursuit of the universe  orbit: the rock is said to have prepared for the pandemic conditions at its transit location Earth. Anne Virkki , head of the observatory's planetary radar station , jokingly explained , “The topographical features such as hills and ridges at the end of 1998 OR2 are fascinating from a scientific point of view. But since we're all just thinking about Covid-19 *, these characteristics make it look as if OR2 actually thought of putting on a face mask * in 1998. ”

Recently team radar got some interesting images from an observation.

As Dr. Virkki tried to explain that a mask did not have much use in this case, Greg just wanted to be a part of things. # Wearamask #asteroid #friday #nasa #fridayvibes #greg #minicomic #comics #science pic.twitter.com/ EnpXLVGvOr

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List of rubric lists: © ESA Science Office / dpa