NASA’s asteroid tracker predicts an asteroid roughly twice the Titanic’s size will pass Earth on Saturday, June 24.
The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) named the 2002-discovered asteroid 467336 (2002 LT38).
One of two asteroids passing on June 24, it follows numerous more that will pass the Earth in the coming days.
Is the 2023 asteroid big?
NASA estimates asteroid 467336 (2002 LT38) has a 450-meter diameter.
Consider the Titanic, a more relevant and contemporary statistic that’s so down to Earth it’s virtually underwater.
The most notorious ship in history. An unsinkable passenger ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 1,500 people and earning James Cameron billions at the box office.
The 269-meter Titanic. Thus, asteroid 467336 (2002 LT38) is nearly twice the size of the Titanic.
Other asteroids passing Earth?
As said, many more asteroids are expected before June 24, with another passing on that day.
These asteroids have their own metrics
- Asteroid 2023 HF1, which passed Earth on June 21, has a diameter of 98 meters, two-and-a-half times smaller than the Hindenburg airship, which burned in 1937, killing 36 people.
- Asteroid 2023 MU, which will pass Earth on June 23, is somewhat larger than the INS Dakar, the Israeli submarine that inexplicably sank in 1968.
- Asteroid 2008 LG2, which passed past Earth on June 24, has a diameter of 54 meters, almost four-and-a-half times the size of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10 Electra, which disappeared in 1937.
Will an asteroid impact Earth in 2023?
Asteroid 467336 (2002 LT38), a Titanic-sized asteroid, will travel by the Earth at 6.6 million kilometers, as will all the others before it. That’s close cosmically, but not close enough to worry about.
That’s lucky because if this asteroid reached Earth, it would be worse than the Titanic’s sinking.
The teaching wing of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, the Davidson Institute of Science, thinks that an asteroid this massive might wipe out a continent.
Asteroid 2023 CX1, which hit Normandy, France, in February, caused no harm.
Unsinkable asteroid? Can we stop an asteroid striking Earth?
Thankfully, technology has progressed since the Titanic perished in 1912. Planetary defense scientists are working to safeguard Earth from asteroids.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission punched an asteroid, changing its orbit, demonstrating kinetic deflection’s potential.
As effective as we’ve been at protecting the Earth from asteroids, our attempts to raise the Titanic’s debris to the surface have failed.