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NASA is right now following the space rock 2023 DW, which will make a nearby way to deal with Earth on February 14, 2046, and even presents a little danger of colliding with our planet.
Although Valentine's Day this year did not go as planned for you, if anything serves as a consolation, there is a possibility that it would have been much better than what has occurred in approximately 23 years. Asteroid 2023 DW, which NASA said is currently being tracked, has a small chance of colliding with Earth on February 14, 2046.
What is the 2023 DW asteroid?
2023 DW is an asteroid that is approximately 0.12 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth and has an estimated diameter of approximately 49.29 meters, according to NASA's Asteroid Watch. The average distance between the Earth's center and the Sun's center is called an astronomical unit.
The asteroid is traveling at a speed of approximately 24.64 kilometers per second in relation to the Sun. A single orbit around the Sun by 2023 DW takes approximately 271 days. It might be within 0.49 AU of the star at the center of our planetary system at its perihelion, or point closest to the Sun. Of course, additional observations of the near-Earth object could alter these figures.
Will the 2023 DW asteroid strike Earth?
Even though the odds are "extremely unlikely," the only thing that can be said for the time being is that we cannot really be certain. “Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future,” reads a tweet from NASA Asteroid Watch.
The asteroid 2023 DW is at the top of the European Space Agency's "Risk List" at the time this article was written. The "Risk List" lists all objects that are closest to Earth and have the highest impact risk.
The asteroid currently ranks at level 1 on the Torino scale, which means that it is "a routine discovery in which a pass near the Earth is predicted that poses no unusual level of danger," as stated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA.
According to the results of the most recent calculations, there is very little chance of a collision, so there is no reason for public concern or attention.
The likelihood of a collision is extremely low according to current calculations, so there should be no public concern or attention. Additionally, new telescopic observations may permit scientists to reassign it to level 0 threat.
Therefore, it is true that the probability of the asteroid actually colliding with Earth at this point is fairly low.
How can we stop DW from colliding with Earth in 2023?
What would happen if the asteroid actually came into contact with Earth? How do we proceed? It is no longer possible to send Bruce Willis and a group of oil drillers to break up the asteroid.
The only asteroid mitigation strategies we could come up with not too long ago were merely theories. However, all of that changed in October of last year when NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. As a result, the DART mission was able to successfully alter the asteroid's path and demonstrated humanity's first approach to avoiding asteroid impacts.
If we were to use this "kinetic impactor" mitigation strategy on the asteroid 2023 DW, then how would it work? In essence, we would crash a small spacecraft into the asteroid, causing it to slightly veer off course.
NASA officials referred to the DART collision with Dimorphos as "crashing a golf cart into the great pyramid" during a press conference that was attended by Indian Express.com. The spacecraft only needs to delay or accelerate the asteroid by a few minutes, which may not sound like much.
The Earth would not be at the point in its orbit where the path of the asteroid intersects with it because it moves at a mind-boggling average speed of around 30 kilometers per second.
