All you need to know about Asteroid Lu

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Discovered by NASA last May, the asteroid measures between 85 and 193.5 feet wide and will approach 985 thousand miles away

At a distance equal to four times greater than the one that separates the Earth from the Moon, this Sunday the asteroid Lu 2019 will approach Earth, which travels at a speed of approximately 18 thousand miles per hour and is part of the group of asteroids that have crept across the blue planet in this month of June, according to the asteroid trackers of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Leer en español: Todo lo que debes saber sobre el Asteroide Lu que pasará sobre la tierra este domingo

The asteroid was discovered on May 10 by NASA scientists, who have been monitoring their behavior in the last 36 days, Azteca América reported. It is estimated that the steroid measures between 85 and 193.5 feet wide and that its orbital trajectory will be recorded at 985,000 miles away; which is four times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

One could say that the Lu presents a considerable size and that its speeds through the vacuum of space reach almost 17,900 mph, so its passage close to the earth will be this Sunday morning in Latin America. The asteroid, like any object near the earth (NEO), is a celestial body that orbits the sun in a direction that allows it to pass close to our planet.

According to La Opinion, the space rock will fly, without being a danger to our planetary system, crawling as already mentioned 985 thousand 800 miles from the earth. Explaining it in another way, at a similar distance between Earth and the Moon. Interestingly, this will be the first known approach of this asteroid to the planet of humans.

The same media added that the aforementioned space rock will continue to asteroid 2019 Lu in a second close encounter with a NEO in just one day. This, because the first to pass will be the 2019 LR asteroid, the space rock measures as much as its predecessor, so NASA's CNEOS estimates that it has a maximum diameter of 187 feet, but almost twice as fast.

Read also: Did you know that there might be water in Pluto?

This curious fact of asteroids near the planet, launches, according to NASA, an alert about the impact that could have this asteroid rain on Earth, said Mundiario.

Scientists from the space agency, together with other organizations such as ESA, called for an urgent global study on what they consider a real threat. "Those who handle emergencies want to know when, where and how an asteroid would impact, and the type and extent of damage it could do," said Leviticus Lewis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Of course, the experts clarified that for the remainder of this century there is no known object likely to collide with the earth, however, it is absolutely necessary to stay alert. The main argument used by specialists is that of the Chelyabinsk meteor, which burned down the entire Ural del Sur mountain range in 2013, leaving more than 1,600 people injured.

In that sense, Jim Bridenstine, head of the space agency added: "I would like to tell you that these events are unique, but they are not, we have to make sure that people understand that this is not about Hollywood, it's not about movies" replied Mundiario.

A month with many close encounters

Sputnik of Brazil recalled that only in this month of June, a total of 12 asteroids have "slipped" or "will slide" for the Blue Planet, all being defined as "close" encounters. They are: 2019 LL1, 2013 YA14, 2019 KJ, 2019 L, 2019 LR, 2019 L1, 2019 LB2, 2019 LM1, 2010 NY65, 2008 KV2, 2016 NN15 and 2019 LV1.

They also add that the number of approaches remains the same, which changed was the asteroid detection system by the US space agency, which already announced in the first quarter of the year that space rocks that would pass close to Earth in a period of two weeks.

Sputnik stressed that the most anticipated meeting will be on Thursday, June 27 when the 2008 KV2 asteroid of 350 meters in diameter, comes to 41 thousand kilometers per hour in the direction of the Earth.

Studies say that this rock is able to create a crater 660 meters deep and cause an earthquake of magnitude 7. The KV will go to 6.8 million kilometers from us, an astronomically short distance considering the infinite size of the Universe and of our Solar System.

LatinAmerican Post | Onofre Zambrano

Translated from "Todo lo que debes saber sobre el Asteroide Lu que pasará sobre la tierra este domingo"