The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) generated concern in the last hours by alerting that an asteroid of the size of the Pisa tower He goes to Earth. The event is considered a “quasi accident” by astronomers, since the rocky and metallic object It will be quite close to our planet on Monday, July 28.
Under the name 2025 OW, the celestial body is expected to spend 392,706 miles from the earth next week. However, this is not the only one. The JPL team -which is like the “brain” of the United States Space Agency for space missions and space rock monitoring – It is following four other asteroids that will also approach the Earth in the next seven days.
While NASA mentioned that the presence of asteroids does not represent any risk, they indicated that Their respective sizes could cause minor structural damage, especially if they enter the atmosphere on a populated area.
As for the speed of asteroid 2025 OW, the specialists indicated that it moves about 46,960 miles per hour, which means a normal speed for asteroids that approach the earth.
However, there is another that scientists consider “worryingly large,” the 99942 apophis, nicknamed “God of chaos”, which has 1,092 feet high. It is the equivalent of a building of more than 100 floors and could cause very significant damage if it collided with the earth. In addition, it travels at a speed of 66,983 kilometers per hour, which is considered extremely fast. However, It is expected that on April 13, 2029 only 19,883 miles from our planet.
It should be noted that while NASA closely follows these smaller asteroids, scientists expressed their concern because There are large and potentially dangerous asteroids that are very difficult to detect Because they travel in a region of space (near Venus) where the glow of the sun hides them to our terrestrial telescopes, creating a “blind spot” that prevents seeing if one of them goes towards us.
But this is not the only reason that has NASA worried, since an oversight in a mission could have serious consequences not only for the earth, but also for Mars. With the Dart mission (double asteroid redirection test), the space agency set out to divert the orbit of an asteroid for the first time. At speeds greater than 15,000 miles per hour, the ship deliberately crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos, approximately 525 feet in diameter and about 6.8 million miles from the earth. The goal was achieved: the celestial body changed its course. Despite this, the outcome was more complicated than imagined.
“The additional impulse suggests that there were unknown dynamic factors during impact”, Explained Tony Farnham, astronomer from the University of Maryland and main author of the study.“ This changes the rules of the game. If one day we need to divert an asteroid that threatens the earth, we cannot allow ourselves to ignore these variables, ”he argued about the knowledge obtained from this error.