Asteroid 2007 FF1 LIVE – NASA says ‘Hazardous’ space rock makes ‘close approach’ to Earth at 29,800mph

What are Trojan asteroids?

 are in the same orbit as a bigger planet, but they don’t crash because they congregate around two specific spots – L4 and L5 Lagrangian points – in the orbit.

The Sun’s and the planet’s gravitational pulls are counterbalanced by a trojan’s proclivity to fly out of orbit.

The Jupiter trojans are the most numerous of the trojan asteroids.

They are estimated to be as abundant as asteroids in the asteroid belt.

There are trojans on Mars and Neptune, and in 2011, NASA reported the finding of an Earth trojan.

What is the Main Asteroid Belt?

The  between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt, with relatively short orbits.

There are between 1.1 and 1.9million asteroids bigger than one kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter in the belt, as well as millions of smaller ones.

The gravity of freshly created Jupiter stopped the development of planetary bodies in this region early in the solar system’s existence, causing the tiny things to smash with one another, fragmenting them into the asteroids we see today.

What is considered a ‘close approach’?

If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles of Earth and is over a certain size, it is considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.

The asteroid should shoot past from its safe distance at a speed of just under 19,000 miles per hour.

How big was Asteroid 2015 DR215?

At up to 1,607 feet wide, the asteroid was larger than the Empire State Building.

New York’s most iconic building stands at 1,454 feet tall.

Nasa monitors thousands of asteroids

Nasa has its eye on nearly 28,000 known near-Earth asteroids, and discoveries of new asteroids are said to go up by their thousands each year.

On that note, Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.

Nasa upgrades asteroid software, part four

Previously, scientists had to manually do calculations to try and work out the Yarkovsky effect and its impact on an asteroid’s path.

The hope is that the software can also help Nasa spot any potentially hazardous asteroids it may have missed.

Nasa upgrades asteroid software, part three

The Sentry-II software will finally let scientists take the Yarkovsky effect into account when they’re trying to figure out if an asteroid is going to hit Earth.

This was something the original software, called Sentry, couldn’t do.

Davide Farnocchia, a JPL navigation engineer, said: “The fact that Sentry couldn’t automatically handle the Yarkovsky effect was a limitation.”

Nasa upgrades asteroid software, continued

Nasa will be upgrading its 20-year-old software with a new algorithm called Sentry-II, which will periodically scan a table of known potentially hazardous asteroids and their orbits.

Sentry-II will then calculate if any of the asteroids on the table or added to the table have a risk of hitting Earth.

The new system will be taking into account something called the Yarkovsky effect, which refers to when an asteroid absorbs sunlight and emits it as heat.

Nasa upgrades asteroid software

NASA has upgraded its asteroid hazard software to better detect potentially dangerous space rocks.

The US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) uses a special type of software to assess potentially hazardous asteroids that could slam into Earth.

There’s no known imminent “doomsday asteroid” on its way but astronomers check the sky often just as a precaution.

Where are asteroids found?

Asteroids are  in three areas of the solar system.

The majority of asteroids are found in a large ring between Mars and Jupiter’s orbits.

More than 200 asteroids bigger than 60 miles (100 kilometers) in diameter are found in this primary asteroid belt.

According to NASA, the asteroid belt includes between 1.1million and 1.9million asteroids bigger than one kilometer (3,281 feet) in diameter, as well as millions of smaller ones.

Did an asteroid kill the dinosaurs?

The extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid impact, according to a team of scientists who were evaluating whether the newer theory that volcanoes led to their demise was accurate.

The researchers used a variety of methods to assess ancient temperature records and the amount of greenhouse gases that could have been in the atmosphere.

According to the study results, volcanic gasses may have also played a role in the decline of the dinosaurs.

Did an asteroid kill the dinosaurs?

The extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid impact, according to a team of scientists who were evaluating whether the newer theory that volcanoes led to their demise was accurate.

The researchers used a variety of methods to assess ancient temperature records and the amount of greenhouse gases that could have been in the atmosphere.

According to the study results, volcanic gasses may have also played a role in the decline of the dinosaurs.

What is a meteorite?

If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vaporize and becomes a meteor.

On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up, and it may look like a fireball or “shooting star.”

If a meteoroid doesn’t vaporize completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, however, it can land on Earth and becomes a meteorite.

Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets, part three

Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun.

However, rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them as a result of the ice and dust vaporizing.

“They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet,” reported.

Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets, continued

When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids.

“Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as ‘space rocks,'” reported.

Difference between asteroids, meteors, and comets

An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun.

They are “rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago,” reveals.

Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter).

But they can be found anywhere, including in a path that can impact Earth.

Asteroids often approach Earth

Asteroids that come very close to Earth are fairly common.

Nasa has previously revealed that car-sized asteroids hit the Earth’s atmosphere at least once a year, but they burn up before reaching the ground.

And a lot of asteroids are hard to spot because they can be in blind spots created by the Sun.

Asteroid deflection

Nasa recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.

Nasa : “DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.”

Asteroid size variation

Asteroids range in size from about 1000 kilometers in diameter for the biggest to 1 meter across for the smallest.

The three biggest are shaped like small planets and are assumed to be surviving protoplanets.

They are nearly spherical, with at least partially differentiated interiors, and are thought to be surviving protoplanets.

The great majority, on the other hand, are much smaller and irregularly shaped, suggesting that they are either damaged planetesimals or pieces of bigger worlds.

History of asteroid discovery methods, conclusion

Over the next several years, three other asteroids – Pallas, Juno, and Vesta – were identified, with Vesta being discovered in 1807.

After another eight years of futile searching, most astronomers concluded that there were no more and stopped looking.

Karl Ludwig Hencke, on the other hand, persevered and began looking for other asteroids in 1830.

He discovered 5 Astraea, the first new asteroid in 38 years, fifteen years later. Six Hebe was discovered less than two years afterward.

History of asteroid discovery methods, continued

Ceres, the first object found by the group, was discovered by mistake in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, director of the Palermo Observatory in Sicily.

He identified a new star-like object in the constellation Taurus and tracked its movement over several nights.

Carl Friedrich Gauss utilized these observations later that year to calculate the orbit of this mysterious object, which was discovered to lie between Mars and Jupiter.

Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, was the inspiration for Piazzi's name.

History of asteroid discovery methods

Baron Franz Xaver von Zach formed a party of 24 astronomers to explore the sky for the missing planet indicated by the Titius-Bode law to be around 2.8 AU from the Sun.

This was partially in response to of the planet Uranus at the distance predicted by the law in 1781.

Hand-drawn sky charts for all stars in the zodiacal band down to an agreed-upon faintness limit were necessary for this work.

On future evenings, the sky would be surveyed again in the hopes of spotting any moving objects.

The missing planet's predicted velocity was around 30 seconds of arc every hour, which was easily detectable by observers.

April Fool’s Day asteroid details, conclusion

At a distance of around 4.5million miles, or 19.31 lunar distance, the near-Earth object is predicted to pass safely over Earth.

However, for astronomers, this is still a dangerous distance, which is why the asteroid is being continuously monitored.

April Fool’s Day asteroid details, continued

The asteroid, dubbed 2007 FF1, will reach its closest approach to Earth on Friday, April 1.

The enormous asteroid is around 260 meters or 850 feet in size, according to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

No other asteroid is currently being monitored and is expected to pass nearby in the next two weeks compares to 2007 FF1.

April Fool's Day asteroid details

NASA is tracking the massive asteroid, which is traveling at an incredible 30,000 miles per hour.

The asteroid, which is more than three times the size of India's world-famous towering white marble monument, the Taj Mahal, is capable of creating havoc if it collides with an Earth-like planet.