As of: February 3, 2024, 5:22 a.m
By: Tanja Banner
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The asteroid 2008 OS7 is as big as the Empire State Building - and is now rushing past Earth at a speed of 75,000 km/h.
Munich – In its orbit around the sun, the Earth often encounters asteroids, which then race past it more or less closely.
Occasionally our planet is also hit by a small asteroid.
Just recently, the asteroid 2024 BX1 hit the Earth's atmosphere near Berlin and burned up there.
But the chunks that the Earth encounters in space are not always so small.
Asteroid 2008 OS7 could wipe out a city - but it won't hit Earth
On Friday (February 2nd), our planet will encounter a significantly larger asteroid that could cause major regional destruction if it hits Earth.
Fortunately, asteroid 2008 OS7 remains far enough away from Earth that there is no danger.
The
Center for Near Earth Object Studies
(CNEOS) of the US space agency NASA estimates the asteroid to be between 210 and 480 meters in size.
The asteroid is traveling at a speed of 18.17 kilometers per second (about 75,000 km/h).
Surname: |
2008 OS7 |
|---|---|
Type: |
asteroid |
Discovery: |
July 30, 2008 |
Closest approach to Earth: |
on February 2, 2024 |
Closest distance to earth: |
about 2.8 million kilometers |
The closest distance between the Earth and the asteroid 2008 OS7 is about 2.8 million kilometers - that is about seven times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
So no one on Earth needs to be afraid of the current asteroid, because it clearly misses the blue planet.
Nevertheless, the asteroid can be observed in the sky using appropriate telescopes.
The Virtual Telescope wants to show the asteroid 2008 OS7 in a live stream on February 2nd from 7 p.m.
Asteroid 2008 OS7 has been known for many years
The asteroid 2008 OS7 was discovered in 2008 and has been observed again and again since then.
That's why its trajectory can be calculated quite accurately.
It will come close to Earth for the next time on January 7, 2032 - but then it will remain 72 million kilometers away.
A chunk the size of 2008 OS7 could pose a real threat to Earth if it were on a collision course.
An asteroid that is about the size of the Empire State Building (381 meters high), like 2008 OS7, would leave a crater more than four kilometers in diameter on Earth, according to the Earth Impact Effects Program at Imperial College London and Purdue University.
Such an asteroid can definitely wipe out an entire city.
For this reason, even smaller asteroids are called “city killers”.
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Nasa and Esa are searching the sky for dangerous asteroids
Precisely because larger asteroids on a collision course can be dangerous, the major space organizations are conducting research into defense against asteroids.
The first mission to date to test a planetary defense concept successfully rammed an asteroid in space in autumn 2022.
Now another space probe will fly to the asteroid and explore its effects.
In addition, automated telescopes search the sky night after night to detect possible dangerous objects in good time.
A small asteroid comes very close to Earth.
(Symbolic image) © imago/Ken Pilon
This doesn't always work, as was shown by the fall of the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013.
The celestial body came from the direction of the sun, which is why the telescopes were “blind”.
But NASA is also planning to find a solution to this problem with the “Neo Surveyor” space telescope planned for 2027.
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