Asteroid 2007 FF1 LIVE – ‘Close approach’ of ‘April Fool’s Day’ space rock to happen TODAY, Nasa says

What is the Main Asteroid Belt?

The bulk of known asteroids orbits 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.

Mining asteroids: Is it possible?

The prospect of collecting minerals from asteroids has piqued the interest of NASA, other space organizations, and commercial firms alike, according to Space.com.

One often touted resource that some are interested in harvesting from asteroids and the moon is water, which may be turned into rocket propellant to prevent spaceships from having to launch the weight of their return fuel.

Some people are also interested in extracting metals from asteroids, claiming that the asteroid belt holds enormous financial potential.

Others argue that making this strategy financially sustainable is more challenging.

Did asteroids bring water to Earth? continued

As Space.com reports, according to Nasa’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), “It seems possible that the origin of life on the Earth’s surface could have been first prevented by an enormous flux of impacting comets and asteroids, then a much less intense rain of comets may have deposited the very materials that allowed life to form some 3.5 – 3.8 billion years ago.”

Did asteroids bring water to Earth?

Collisions that could kill people could be the reason we’re still alive today. Earth was parched and desolate when it was formed, according to Space.com.

Collisions between asteroids and comets may have brought water ice and other carbon-based chemicals to the planet, allowing life to emerge.

At the same time, the frequent collisions made it impossible for life to survive until the solar system stabilized.

Later collisions determined which species survived and which died.

What is the temperature of an asteroid?

According to Space.com, the average temperature of an asteroid’s surface is minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

What spacecraft first visited an asteroid?

Galileo, NASA’s spacecraft, was the first to visit an asteroid, passing by asteroids Gaspra and Ida, according to Space.com.

How are asteroids named?

A provisional designation is given to a freshly found asteroid that consists of the year of discovery and an alphanumeric number denoting the half-month of finding and the sequence within that half-month.

Once the orbit of an asteroid has been established, it is assigned a number and, in certain cases, a name, according to Open.edu.

When a name is repeated in running text, it is typical to omit the number entirely or to drop it after the first mention.

In addition, the discoverer of the asteroid can suggest a name within the International Astronomical Union’s standards.

Dust cloud forms due to colliding asteroids

The catastrophic scene left behind by a cosmic collision was discovered by data from a decommissioned NASA satellite telescope, according to Space.com.

The magnitude of a debris cloud observed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows that the dust was produced when two dwarf planet-sized particles collided a few hundred light-years away.

Year 2880 looking up, part three

According to Yahoo, the asteroid doesn’t look to be an immediate risk to Earth in the year 2880.

Scientists at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and the European Space Agency’s NEO Coordination Office published the most recent update on 1950 DA on March 29, 2022, which drastically reduced the asteroid’s hazard.

The impact risk has now been reduced from one in 8,000 to one in 30,000.

On the Palermo Scale, it has also gone from a -1.4 to a -2.0. They’d probably eliminate 1950 DA from their danger lists entirely if it was any lower.

Year 2880 looking up, part two

It was lucky that scientists caught sight of the asteroid at the right time as they were able to direct the Goldstone and Arecibo radio telescopes towards it, according to Yahoo.

By bouncing radar rays off the surface of 1950 DA, they were able to get a better look at its size and form, as well as learn more about how it traveled through space.

Based on these findings, a new depiction of 1950 DA’s orbit was created, as well as a fresh evaluation of its hazard to Earth.

As a result, NASA’s Sentry Impact Risk table, which lists all known asteroids with a probability of colliding with Earth in the future, abruptly pushed 1950 DA to the top.

In reality, 1950 DA was the most deadly asteroid known from 2014 until the present.

Year 2880 is looking up

On February 23, 1950, asteroid 29075 (1950 DA) was discovered; a 1.3-kilometer diameter space rock.

Astronomers lost sight of it after that, for slightly over 50 years, due to the timing of its orbit.

It was only discovered again on December 31, 2000, almost three months before the asteroid will pass Earth safely at a distance of roughly 8million kilometers.

When was Asteroid 2007 FF1 discovered?

2007 FF1 was detected in 2007, but because of increasingly powerful sky surveys like NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, far smaller asteroids are now being identified while they’re quite close to Earth, Forbes reports.

Asteroid mining and NFTs?

Exploration Laboratories LLC, or ExLabs, an asteroid mining corporation, seeks to employ NFTs to explore space and mine asteroids, according to NFTEvening.com.

There is not much information, according to the website, but there will be more available soon regarding the cost of the NFTs and any official dates.

April Fool’s Day

Space experts have said that a “potentially hazardous” asteroid is set to approach the Earth on Friday, April 1.

Astronomers say the closest that the Apollo-class asteroid could get is about 4.6million miles away.

St Patrick’s Day asteroids, continued

A 78 foot asteroid called 2022 EU3 was the last close approach asteroid to shoot past Earth on St Patrick’s Day.

Asteroid 2022 EU3 came within 3.4 million miles of Earth.

The other two asteroids to make the St Paddy’s Day list were called 2022 EM6 and 2022 EU6.

They’re said to be about 200 feet and 183 feet large, respectively.

St Patrick’s Day asteroids

Before Asteroid 2013 BO76 flew by, Nasa was watching five close approach asteroids around St Patrick’s Day.

All of the asteroids made their close approaches to Earth that morning.

Asteroid 2019 PH1 was the largest at 203 feet wide.

The closest approach came from a slightly smaller space rock called 2022 EL6.

What is Scout?

Scout, also known as Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, is a miniature spacecraft that flies around in space and returns data back down to scientists on earth.

This data shows scientists potential threats and incoming threats.

Scout is roughly the size of a shoebox.

“Using a science-grade camera, NEA Scout will obtain data that will help close gaps in knowledge about near-Earth asteroids,” wrote NASA on their website.

Giant asteroids could be spotted early, continued

Scientists at NASA and beyond have created high-tech machines that have the ability to warn us when deadly space rocks are entering the atmosphere.

Using these technologies, scientists were able to predict exactly what time and where the recent asteroid would hit the earth — in this case, March 11 at 5.23pm off the coast of Greenland, and their predictions were correct within seconds.

With these new ‘Scout’ monitoring technologies, scientists can be better prepared for these potential asteroid disasters.

Giant asteroids could be spotted early

Giant asteroids that could potentially endanger the Earth can be spotted thanks to a special system.

The Scout monitoring system, a small piece of technology the size of a shoebox, may be able to save earth from catastrophic disaster.

Using new “Scout” monitoring technologies, scientists were able to spot an asteroid heading toward earth on March 11, and accurately predict its patterns.

Previous most distant star record

Earendel’s distance from Earth beats out the previous record-holder, a star nicknamed Icarus.

That star was observed as it appeared 9.4 billion years ago, which is 3.4 billion years more recent than the new record-holder. 

The discovery proves why we should always be looking up, even for something more commonplace like a passing asteroid.

New image of most distant star, part three

Earendel is 8.2 billion years older than the Sun and Earth.

“When the light that we see from Earendel was emitted, the Universe was less than a billion years old; only 6 percent of its current age,” said study co-author Victoria Strait, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cosmic Dawn Center in Copenhagen.

“At that time it was 4 billion lightyears away from the proto-Milky Way, but during the almost 13 billion years it took the light to reach us, the Universe has expanded so that it is now a staggering 28 billion lightyears away.”

New image of most distant star, continued

Scientists have nicknamed the star “Earendel,” which means “morning star” or “rising light” in old English.

The star was captured by Nasa’s Hubble telescope, which launched in 1990.

Located 28 billion light-years away, the star is situated within just 900 million years of the Big Bang, according to a new paper in the journal Nature.

The study also suggests that Earendel could be between 50 to 500 times more massive than our sun, and millions of times more luminescent.

New image from Nasa reveals most distant star

The April Fool’s Day asteroid isn’t the only exciting thing happening in our skies.

Nasa recently revealed the most distant star ever observed in a new image.

On Wednesday, the US space agency shared a photo of a star dubbed WHL0137-LS – the image is proof of the farthest detection of a star yet.