Stadium-sized asteroid 2019 OR1 to approach Earth at 48,168 km/h, NASA issues urgent warning

It seems as if asteroids have resumed their dangerously near visits to Earth. NASA monitors these asteroids by analysing data gathered from observatories and telescopes including Pan- STARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey, and the NEOWISE telescope. Some of this apparatus is located in the air, while the rest is rooted to the ground.

Warnings have been issued for the asteroid 2019 OR1 by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. On November 21, at a distance of 4.3 million kilometres from Earth, the 770-foot asteroid is predicted to make a near pass. The asteroid is already on its way towards Earth, flying at an astonishing speed of 48,168 km/h. Although this asteroid is not projected to strike Earth, a tiny variation in its route owing to contact with the planet's gravitational field might shift its trajectory with devastating results.

A Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) has been set up and is being overseen by the Planetary Science Division at NASA's main office in Washington. The PDCO is responsible for the timely discovery of potentially hazardous objects (PHOS), such as asteroids and comets whose orbits are expected to bring them within 0.05 astronomical units of Earth (5 million miles or 8 million kilometres).

NASA just completed the DART mission to counteract such threats from orbit. The goal of NASA's Dart mission was to see whether it was possible to alter the course of an asteroid. With the results of this test, the world took its first step toward developing the technology necessary to stop any massive rock from crashing to Earth.

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DART tipped the scales at 570 kg. Though destroying the asteroid was not the primary goal of the DART mission. As far as NASA is concerned, the DART mission achieved its primary goal of altering the asteroid's course.