{"id":14362,"date":"2021-03-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/13-03-2021\/asteroid-2001-fo32\/"},"modified":"2021-03-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T00:00:00","slug":"asteroid-2001-fo32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-03-2021\/asteroid-2001-fo32","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid 2001 FO32"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>asteroid<\/strong> \u201c<strong>2001 FO32<\/strong>\u201d, the <strong>largest asteroid predicted to pass by Earth in 2021<\/strong>, will be at its <strong>closest on 21st March 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About 2001 FO32<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It will <strong>not come closer than 2 million km to Earth<\/strong> and there is <strong>no threat of a collision<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>2 million km is<strong> equal to 5\u00bc times the distance from Earth to the Moon<\/strong>, which is considered a<strong> close distance in astronomical terms<\/strong>, hence it has been designated a <strong>Potentially Hazardous Asteroids<\/strong> (PHAs).\n<ul>\n<li>PHAs are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid\u2019s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It will<strong> pass by at about 124,000 kph<\/strong>, faster than the speed at which most asteroids encounter Earth.\n<ul>\n<li>The reason for its fast speed is its<strong> highly eccentric orbit around the Sun<\/strong>, an orbit that is<strong> tilted 39\u00b0 to Earth\u2019s orbital plane<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This orbit takes the asteroid<strong> closer to the Sun than Mercury<\/strong>, and<strong> twice as far from the Sun as Mars<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>As 2001 FO32 <strong>makes its inner solar system<\/strong> journey, it <strong>picks up speed<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>completes one orbit every 810 days<\/strong> (about 2\u00bc years).<\/li>\n<li>It will <strong>not come this close to Earth again until 2052<\/strong>, when it will pass by at about 2.8 million km.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/466553345207797250_image.png\" style=\"height:348px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 (Image Courtesy: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/news\/asteroid-2001-fo32-will-safely-pass-by-earth-march-21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JPL<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Significance<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It will provide an opportunity for astronomers to get a more <strong>precise understanding of the asteroid\u2019s size and albedo<\/strong> (i.e. how bright, or reflective, its surface is), and a <strong>rough idea of its composition<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>When sunlight hits an asteroid\u2019s surface, <strong>minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>By <strong>studying the spectrum of light reflecting off t<\/strong>he surface, astronomers can <strong>measure the chemical \u201cfingerprints\u201d of the minerals<\/strong> on the surface of the asteroid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Over 95% <\/strong>of near-Earth asteroids have been <strong>discovered, tracked, and catalogued<\/strong>. <strong>None<\/strong> of the large asteroids in the catalogue <strong>has any chance of impacting Earth<\/strong>,<strong> <\/strong>still, efforts continue to discover all asteroids that could pose an impact hazard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Asteroid<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Asteroids, sometimes called <strong>minor planets<\/strong>, are <strong>rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation<\/strong> of the solar system about <strong>4.6 billion years ago<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Most of this ancient space rubble can be <strong>found orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter <\/strong>within the<strong> main asteroid belt<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Some asteroids<strong> go in front of and behind Jupiter<\/strong>, which are called <strong>Trojans<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Asteroids that<strong> come close to Earth are called Near Earth Objects <\/strong>(NEOs) for short. NASA keeps close watch on these asteroids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Asteroids<strong> range in size <\/strong>from <strong>Vesta <\/strong>(the largest at about 329 miles in diameter) to <strong>bodies that are less than 33 feet<\/strong> across. The <strong>total mass of all the asteroids combined <\/strong>is <strong>less than that of Earth&#8217;s Moon<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Asteroids are <strong>not all round<\/strong> like planets. They have<strong> jagged and irregular shapes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Structure<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Most asteroids are<strong> made of different kinds of rocks<\/strong>, but some have<strong> clays or metals<\/strong>, such as nickel and iron.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/433587837358211140_image.png\" style=\"height:381px; margin-left:100px; margin-right:100px; width:626px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/235783874676156400_image.png\" style=\"height:553px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:506px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Image Courtesy: <a href=\"https:\/\/letstalkscience.ca\/educational-resources\/backgrounders\/where-can-we-find-asteroids-and-comets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LTS<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>NASA Space Missions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Several NASA space missions have also flown by and observed asteroids. The <strong>NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft<\/strong> landed on <strong>Eros<\/strong>, an asteroid near Earth, in <strong>2001<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> Dawn spacecraft <\/strong>traveled to the asteroid belt in <strong>2011 <\/strong>to orbit and study the <strong>second largest object there, Vesta<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>2016<\/strong>, <strong>NASA <\/strong>launched the <strong>OSIRIS-REx spacecraft <\/strong>to study <strong>Bennu<\/strong>,<strong> <\/strong>an asteroid near Earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Detecting Asteroids Mission<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA):<\/strong> This includes NASA\u2019s <strong>Double Asteroid Redirection Test<\/strong> (DART) mission and <strong>Hera Mission<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The mission\u2019s <strong>target is Didymos<\/strong>, a binary near-Earth asteroid, one of whose bodies is of the size that could pose the <strong>most likely significant threat to Earth<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>DART Mission:<\/strong> NASA in <strong>2018 <\/strong>has announced that it had started the construction of DART, <strong>scheduled to be launched in 2021<\/strong> with an aim to slam into the smaller asteroid of the Didymos system in 2022.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hera Mission: <\/strong>It is the asteroid deflection mission of <strong>European Space Agency <\/strong>(ESA) that is <strong>scheduled to be launched in 2024<\/strong> to measure the impact crater produced by the DART collision and study the change in the asteroid\u2019s orbital trajectory. It will arrive at the Didymos system in 2027.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-what-is-2001-fo32-largest-asteroid-passing-by-earth-year-7226037\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News The asteroid \u201c2001 FO32\u201d, the largest asteroid predicted to pass by Earth in 2021, will be at its closest on 21st March 2021. About 2001 FO32 It will not come closer than 2 million km to Earth and there is no threat of a collision. 2 million km is equal to 5\u00bc times [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-14362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-science-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/33350676268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}