A massive asteroid, bigger than an Egyptian pyramid, darted between Earth and the moon at almost 21,000 miles per hour at the end of June.
Astronomers were able to take the first-ever images of the space rock during the unusually close approach, which changed the asteroid’s orbit around the sun because it was slightly pushed off course by Earth’s gravitational pull.
The asteroid 2024 MK, which has a diameter of around 500 feet, could destroy a big metropolis. The South African Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which is supported by NASA, was the first to detect the irregular and elongated rock’s accelerating trajectory toward Earth on June 16th.
At its closest approach to Earth on June 29th, just two weeks after its discovery, 2024 MK was at 184,000 miles from Earth’s orbit.
Flyby observations were tracked by astronomers at the Goldstone Solar System Radar telescope located in California’s NASA Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex. The asteroid’s precise form and surface features, including concavities and ridges, were determined by capturing imprecise “bistatic” (a radar including both transmitter and receiver, spaced at a distance similar to that of the anticipated target) photos of the rock as it sped past Earth and reflected radio waves back to Earth. The latest images were shared by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA on July 3.
A bigger asteroid, 2011 UL21, came close to Earth on June 27, just two days before the flyby, capturing photos as it passed Earth almost 4.1 million miles away. A hidden moon lurks in the orbit of this mountain-sized space asteroid.
The latest findings on 2024 MK show that the rock’s path has changed since its discovery. The asteroid was probably brought closer to Earth because of Earth’s gravitational attraction when it swung past us.
In its past life, the asteroid spent the vast majority of its existence in the asteroid belt, which extends from Mars to Jupiter. It completed one solar circle every 3.3 years. But now, according to JPL, experts think the trip can be completed 24 days sooner.
