Huge Asteroid Passes Close to Earth

Huge asteroid passes close to Earth

LOS ANGELES (AP) – An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier on Tuesday passed close to Earth, the closest encounter of a space rock that size in over three decades.

Scientists have ruled out any possibility of a collision but followed it with their telescopes to learn more about the object known as 2005 YU55.

The point was closest to the Earth was little more than 325,000 kilometers (202,000 miles) at 6:28 pm East Coast time (2328 GMT). It is located just inside the lunar orbit, the average distance between Earth and the Moon is 385,000 kilometers nearly (239,000 miles).

The last time a cosmic intruder came so close to Earth was in 1976 and, according to experts, will not happen again until 2028.

Scientists at the Deep Space Network of NASA, in the California desert, this asteroid followed since last week as he approached from the direction of the sun more than 46,000 kilometers per hour (29,000 mph).

Astronomers and amateur observers around the world have followed too.

The Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts, planned a party for him all night and that children and parents could approach telescopes made for research and hear presentations. The asteroid can not be observed with the naked eye.

For those without a telescope, the observatory has passed Ustream video of the object, which attracted several thousand spectators. The asteroid is seen as a white dot on a background of stars.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to educate the public about things in space we need to have knowledge,” including the flying object, said Ron Dantowitz, director of the observatory.

Dantowitz said that “it hit the Earth. We try to mention that all the time.”

If an asteroid of this size collided with the planet, the professor Jay Melosh Purdue University calculated the consequences. The impact would cause a crater of 6.44 kilometers (4 miles) in diameter and 515 meters (1,700 feet) deep. And if it fell into the ocean, would unleash a tsunami with waves up to 20 meters (70 feet) high.