Asteroid 2019 OK : An Armageddon just fly past earth without even getting noticed

 

Have you watched 1998 Hollywood Science thriller movie Armageddon in which an asteroid was about to collide with earth and destroy Humanity ? If no then please watch it and If yes then I would like to inform you We just escape an Armageddon like scenario on 25th July 2019 .

 

 

An asteroid named  " 2019 OK " fly past earth just at a distance of about 70000 km . It was approx 427 foot wide and racing toward earth with a speed of 24km per second just well enough to destroy a city. Our Astronomers and Scientist didn't know about it until it was just days away and that isn't enough time for any existing technology to deflect , destroy or divert an oncoming space object . astronomers said they couldn’t be warned beforehand since the asteroid was flying towards us from the direction of the sun. Moreover, it was just a few days back when the asteroid got discovered by the Brazilian SONEAR Survey.

Was it dangerous ?

Yes,if it had come little more closer . These fast moving small asteroids are very dangerous .They can strike earth with the force of many nuclear weapon and destroy entire cities . In 2013, a significantly smaller meteor — about 20 meters (65 feet) across, or the size of a six-story building — broke up over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk and unleashed an intense shock wave that collapsed roofs, shattered windows and left about 1,200 people injured. The last space rock to strike Earth similar in size to Asteroid 2019 OK was more than a century ago, Brown said. That asteroid, known as the Tunguska event, caused an explosion that leveled 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles) of forest land in Siberia.Moreover, had the asteroid 2019 OK managed to hit our Earth, it would have done so with over 30 times the energy that’s generated by the Hiroshima Atomic Blast.

Keeping tabs on small asteroids 

 

In 2005,US congress directed NASA to track down 90% of near earth asteroids with a width of 460 feet or more by 2020 , However as of Dec 2018 telescope on earth and in space had found less  than one third of these near-earth objects (NEOs) . Keeping tabs on these asteroids is challenging , since scientists can only track an NEO by pointing a telescope in the right place at the right time . Telescope detects the sunlight that these asteroids reflect , but the smaller the asteroid , the fainter the reflection and the harder it is for a telescope to spot the rock and the job became much harder when these asteroid come from direction of the sun toward us ( Like in this case ) .

Well the asteroid has passed now and we are not in any danger right now , But The last-minute detection is yet another sign of how much remains unknown about space and a sobering reminder of the very real threat and it also raises few tough question Like Are we ready for such danger from space ? , will we extinct like dinosaurs one day ? what technology advancement needed to overcame these kind of danger ?