NASA conducted its first planetary defense test during today by smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to deflect it off its course. This was the first ever test done by any space agency to prepare for any potential killing asteroid. The test was conducted on the Dimorphos asteroid which is nearly 560 feet in diameter. Although an asteroid as large as Dimorphos very rarely makes close approaches to Earth, smaller asteroid flybys are frequent. Now, another one is on its way.

Asteroid 2022 SZ2 heading for Earth

NASA has warned that a huge asteroid, as big as a house, is heading for Earth today, September 27. The asteroid is already on its way, travelling at a staggering speed of 12,276 kilometers per hour, which is nearly the speed of a hypersonic ballistic missile. According to NASA, the asteroid will make its closest approach to the planet today, at a distance of just 566,000 kilometers or 0.00379852 Astronomical Units. That is just a few hundred thousand kilometers further away from the Moon!

According to theskylive.com, Asteroid 2022 SZ2 is currently 594,860 kilometers far from us, equivalent to 0.003976 Astronomical Units. Light takes 1.9842 seconds to travel from Asteroid (NEO) 2022 SZ2 and arrive on Earth. An astronomical unit (AU, or au) is basically a unit of length equal to the average, or mean, distance between Earth and the Sun, that is, 149,597,870.7 kilometers.

Did you know?

NASA DART test was captured by a small companion satellite which followed the DART spacecraft to the target asteroid Dimorphos. The spacecraft’s camera is a cubeSAT called LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids). The cubeSAT is made up of two key components, LUKE (LICIACube Unit Key Explorer) and LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid), both of which capture key data from the collision.