I always wonder if an asteroid is on a collision course with the earth, would astronomers tell us? Well, I think so, they have always done it in the past, it is true that an asteroid can cause a huge catastrophe, but no one would hide information about the arrival of an asteroid in the same way that a hurricane can cause a huge disaster and no one in their sanity would withhold information about the arrival of a hurricane.
Although now there is a small difference, we cannot deflect or destroy a hurricane, but an asteroid we may have the technology to deflect or destroy it.
Proof that astronomers warn us of the impact risks of potentially dangerous asteroids is the recent finding of asteroid 2023 DW, which was discovered on February 27, from the Chilean observatory of San Pedro de Atacama, by two French researchers. Georges Attard and Alain Maury, as they made more observations, realized that the orbit of this asteroid crossed dangerously with the Earth's orbit.
The study speaks of a probability of impact with the earth of 1 in 560 on February 14, 2046, this asteroid is about 50 meters in diameter, it is one of the smallest, it is in fact on the limit to be considered an asteroid since the smaller than 50 meters in diameter, astronomers often call them meteoroids.
But one like that, 50 meters in diameter, can cause a lot of damage, it can easily destroy a large city and if it ends up entering the atmosphere, the question then becomes where this DW 2023 asteroid could hit.
The Sormano astronomical observatory in Italy published an estimate of the possible risk corridor, as we can see the impact area over a line that starts in the Indian Ocean, passes through Indonesia, crosses the Philippines and reaches North America, ending on the coast. Atlantic of the United States.
That would be the risk zone, but what would happen if it hits as I said, a 50-meter asteroid can devastate a large city, but the power of the impact can also vary, there are many factors, the main ones are the mass of the asteroid , the angle of entry, the composition of the asteroid, that is, if it is a solid, metallic block or a conglomerate of rocks and dust, and the impact speed.
This last data if we know it is 15.43 kilometers per second or 55,548 kilometers per hour, it is a great speed, although it would be within the normal range for this type of asteroids, at that speed it could travel the distance between Madrid and Mexico City in only 9 and a half minutes, and in the worst, worst case scenario it could create a large crater like the Barringer crater located in Arizona United States.
Let's hope that if the calculations are correct, humanity has a plan to destroy or divert it; and if not, that it falls in a desert area to minimize damage.
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