The relatively small asteroid BH30 narrowly missed the Earth as it was expected to hit the surface on Monday. This follows a house-size asteroid which was predicted to hit Earth six days prior the BH30 which also appeared to be a near-miss. Yet again, there was a killer whale-sized asteroid that was supposed to enter the planet's atmosphere prior these two smaller celestial rocks, but fortunately only passed through.
Three asteroids were seen lurking near the Earth's vicinity which scientists believe to hit the surface. Fortunately, although they were only detected shortly before they passed at their closest distance to Earth, all three have been near-misses. The Asteroid BH30 which was reportedly as big as a car zipped past the planet only 32,200 miles distant at its closest approach. This is closer to Earth than the Moon which has only been 225,000 miles closest to the planet. Asteroid BH30 was estimated by astronomers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be 19 feet across.
According to the Daily Star, a larger asteroid dubbed AG13 was supposed to hit the Earth on Jan. 9 which was 119,500 miles away. Scientists say that the asteroid was approximately 50-110 feet across. This makes it as large as the as the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded in the midair of Russia in 2013. The explosion reportedly caused over $30 million of damages.
Meanwhile another asteroid was discovered dubbed 2017BX which is reportedly 10-40 feet across. It has however blew at a distance 16,252 miles from the Earth. The next close pass is the 2012 TC4 which is reportedly 33-100 feet across. This asteroid is expected to come at the closest point from Earth at 13,200 miles. Scientists believe it will pass or hit the planet sometime in October.
According to the IB Times, although these space rocks came with sizes that cannot bring danger to Earth, the alarming part of these incidents was that they were detected only a few days before they pass the planet. Scientists believe that earlier detection can save the nations from destructions of a possible landing. As per report, for an asteroid to cause devastation, the body should be at least over half a mile in diameter. However, experts say that there are 1 million smaller asteroids that might have the capability to wipe out a city, and these are all yet to be identified.
It can be recalled that the 1908 Tunguska meteor wiped out 770-square miles of the Siberian forest. Luckily, the incident did not cause fatalities. The alleged 1490 Ch'ing-yang event is said to be the deadliest meteor crash so far, where at least 10,000 people in Ming China were reportedly killed.
Before 2016 ended, NASA senior scientist Joseph Nuth said that if a large meteor collides with Earth, humanity cannot do anything about it. However, former president Barack Obama then commissioned the White House to improve international preparedness in such disastrous events. Moves are also being sculptured to block possible hits of space rocks detected only a few hours before flyby like the case with the asteroid BH30.
