Astronomers studying the striking Chelyabinsk meteor that explode over Russia this retiring February now suspect that it was a shard of a larger heavenly body — and that upwards of 20 related asteroid may be on like trajectory towards Earth .
In the half - yearsince the event , scientist havelearned a lotabout the Chelyabinsk shooting star , or superbolide .
https://gizmodo.com/meteorite-explodes-over-russia-hundreds-injured-5984483
https://gizmodo.com/incredible-details-are-emerging-about-russias-chelyabin-5985276
We get it on that it was about 56 - feet across ( 17 meter ) , it weighed about 10,000 loads , and was moving at 11 miles per 2nd ( 40,000 mph , 64,000 km / hr ) when it arrive at Earth . It vaporize in at an angle of 20 ° above the horizontal and let loose the equivalent of 460 kilotons of TNT — enough energy to createa shockwave that encircle the Earth twice . The result burst damaged buildings , injuring more than 1,000 people . uranologist were n’t capable to detect it because it was obscured by the Sun ’s glower .
https://gizmodo.com/the-shockwave-from-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-circled-the-e-610086889
One piece of entropy that has eluded scientists , however , has been Chelyabinsk ’s accurate orbit around the Sun — an of import nugget of info that could secernate us if other objects are on a similar path .
Hoping to figure this out , Spanish researchers ( and comrade ) Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos lately conduct an exhaustive computer pretense of million of possible orbits to find the most likely one . The team then averaged the 10 good orbits and match those against real asteroids in NASA ’s catalogue .
They found 20 .
The asteroid , which are suspect to be part of the same family , range in size from about 16 to 660 foot across ( 5 - 200 meter ) . Two are relatively large , include the 200 - measure wide2011 EO40(which was put on NASA ’s naughty leaning last yr ) ; this asteroid , which has frequent close encounters with Venus , Mars , and the Earth - Moon system , has an orbit that ’s very similar to the computed pre - impact way of life of the Chelyabinsk superbolide . Its next scheduled flyby with world is scheduled for September 23rd , 2025 .
https://gizmodo.com/how-serious-does-an-asteroid-threat-have-to-be-before-w-5984576
According to the researchers , a large eubstance looping out past Mars and then back towards Venus came asunder some metre within the past 20,000 to 40,000 years , in all likelihood the result of temperature extremes and planetary gravitation . The ensue pieces now make up the “ Chelyabinsk family ” — a previously unidentified face pack of untested and related to asteroids .
Some of these piece , say the researchers , could eventually follow the same path towards Earth that was taken by the shooting star that exploded over Russia . But as they themselves allow , the gravitational pull of the planets could cause their orbits to purport , manoeuvre them clear of Earth . They ’re also not 100 % certain that they ’ve nailed the exact area of the asteroids , including 2011 EO40 .
Indeed , lest we get too alarmed by this news , it ’s crucial to note that the evidence presented by the astronomers is speculative and circumstantial .
“ Our calculations propose a dynamic link between some of the candidates and the superbolide but , regrettably , the current orbits of all the candidates are not reliable enough to take a conclusive link although the available evidence is certainly encouraging , ” conclude the research worker .
Well , I ’m not solely certain “ supporting ” is the most appropriate selection of words , here . Anyways , as Nature Newsreports , more clip is needed to get more accurate pattern :
The ripe sibling candidate[‘s] … orbit was calculated from observations take over just 34 day . That is too short a time to be capable to pinpoint its position in the hereafter , says Jon Giorgini , a senior psychoanalyst in the Solar System Dynamics Group at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California . For that , research worker would take observations have over the asteroid ’s two - yr area , he says .
David Nesvorny , who studies asteroid at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder , Colorado , also recommend caution in take out this particular family unit tree diagram . “ I opine that the resemblance of cranial orbit is coincidental , ” he says . “ It is not obvious to me why [ the Chelyabinsk meteor ] can not be a fragment that was produced by a hit in the main asteroid belt , and evolved to its impact celestial orbit by a few planetary encounters . ”
Indeed , further analysis will be required to corroborate the astronomers ’ claim , let in a collection of sampling taken from the potential asteroidal family members ( easier said than done ! ) , or more moderately , by analyze the light reverberate off the sibling asteroids to compare it with the composition of Chelyabinsk fragments .
understand the integral subject field at the preprint website , arXiv : “ The Chelyabinsk superbolide : a fragment of asteroid 2011 EO40 ? ” It ’s define to be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society : Letters .
asteroidsAstronomymeteoritesScienceSpace
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