This week, NASA scientists unveiled captivating images of an asteroid, 2024 ON, that recently whizzed past Earth. The pictures reveal a fascinating sight: an asteroid shaped like a peculiar tumbling snowman. This bizarre celestial object, roughly the size of a skyscraper, made a safe flyby of our planet at a distance of 620,000 miles (1 million kilometers) – about 2.6 times the distance between the moon and Earth – on Tuesday, September 17th. It was traveling at an impressive speed of 19,842 mph (31,933 km/h), equivalent to about 26 times the speed of sound.
The striking images were captured by the Goldstone Solar System Radar, located near Barstow, California, on September 16th. They showcase 2024 ON’s peanut-like shape, a result of two asteroids becoming gravitationally locked into a formation known as a ‘contact binary’. This occurs when two asteroids come too close together, their gravitational pull merging them into a singular entity.
Other notable examples of contact binaries include Selam, a double-lobed ‘moonlet’ orbiting the asteroid Dinkinesh in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and Arrokoth, a frigid object beyond Pluto’s orbit that was studied by NASA’s New Horizons probe in 2015.
Despite being classified as ‘potentially hazardous’ due to its proximity to Earth’s orbit, NASA emphasizes that 2024 ON poses no immediate threat to our planet. The precise measurements obtained from Goldstone’s observations have allowed scientists to significantly reduce uncertainties in the asteroid’s trajectory for many decades to come.
This discovery underscores the importance of NASA’s continuous efforts to track and monitor near-Earth objects. NASA defines any space object that comes within 4.65 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth as ‘potentially hazardous,’ even if they don’t represent an immediate danger. This cautious approach stems from the understanding that even slight nudges to an asteroid’s trajectory – caused by collisions with other asteroids, for example – could alter its course and potentially send it on a collision course with Earth.
NASA’s vigilant asteroid tracking program involves scanning the entire night sky every 24 hours, cataloging and monitoring the locations and orbits of approximately 28,000 asteroids. The agency has diligently calculated the trajectories of these near-Earth objects well into the future, assuring us that there are no known threats of an apocalyptic asteroid impact for at least the next 100 years.
The discovery of 2024 ON serves as a fascinating reminder of the vast and dynamic nature of our solar system, while also highlighting the critical role NASA plays in protecting our planet from potential celestial hazards.
