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This ‘most dangerous asteroid known to mankind’ was destined to hit Earth but then THIS happened


The European Space Agency has labeled a 50-meter wide asteroid as “the most dangerous asteroid known to mankind in the last year” because of its high probability of hitting Earth. But something has changed.

On June 30, 2022, the world observed International Asteroid Day. But the days of its construction are extremely tumultuous for space agencies around the globe because of an asteroid called 2021 QM1. This 50 meter wide asteroid is the real threat of an asteroid strike on Earth. With twice the size of the asteroid that exploded atop Chelyabinsk, it could have devastated an entire city. Further observations raised the asteroid’s likelihood of risk to the point that the European Space Agency (ESA) labeled it “the most dangerous asteroid known to mankind over the past year”. We were even told the date of the attack – April 2, 2052. But after not being able to observe it for months, when scientists were finally able to locate it near Here, there’s something different about this killer asteroid.

The asteroid was first discovered on August 28, 2021 by the Mount Lemmon observatory in Arizona. It’s not unusual that new near-Earth objects (NEOs) are discovered almost every night. But concern grew as telescopes around the globe began reporting disaster spell data.

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“These early observations gave us more information about the asteroid’s path that we then predicted about the future. We could see its future paths around the Sun, and in 2052 it could come dangerously close to Earth. The more asteroids are observed, the greater the risk becomes.” speak Richard Moissl, Head of Planetary Defense, ESA.

The most dangerous asteroid known to mankind has become untrackable

Making it to the ESA’s asteroid risk list is no big deal. Initial observations usually come with a range of errors and, after more data are collected, they are dropped from the list as the uncertainty decreases and the risk factors decrease. But an unfortunate cosmic alignment made that impossible this time. The asteroid’s orbit is bringing it closer to the Sun, and from where the Earth is located, it can no longer track the asteroid due to the Sun’s glare. Waiting is the only option ESA has. But there is another risk. By the time it leaves the Sun, the tiny asteroid may have become too faint to be detected.

But fortunately, the scientists calculated a short period of time for them to observe the asteroid and make the final calculations to know for sure if a strike is imminent. . The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has been prepared for this mission. Using its 8-meter-wide mirror, it was able to capture an image of a small blip on May 24, which is the deadliest asteroid known to mankind. For reference, QM1 in 2021 is 250 million times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the naked eye from a dark spot, according to ESA.

New observations have now highlighted that the asteroid will not cross paths with Earth for at least this century.





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