~~ a short essay ~~
by tkbrown
The world has been watching to see if an Apollo-class asteroid, provisionally referenced as 7335 (1989 JA), would come closer to Earth than predicted by NASA. “Four times the size of the Empire State Building and travelling 20 times faster than a speeding bullet” (Specktor, 24 May 2022), some scientists have said the asteroid’s path was too close for comfort. “If the projected trajectory across our orbit had deviated, it could have hit Earth” (Specktor, 24 May 2022). However, Specktor cautioned, “the likelihood of that happening was pretty small considering the fact its path circumvented Earth by a mere 2.5 million miles.” He added, “the Earth will not encounter the orbit of 7335 (1989 JA) again until its next flyby on 23 Jun 2055.”
The rocky mass, “was first detected 1989 by astronomer Eleanor Helin at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California,” (Eds. Wikipedia, 26 May 2022). The editors at Wikipedia quoted Mainzer, A; Gray, T.; et al. in saying, “a survey by NEOWISE (a mission of NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)” the asteroid has an albedo of 0.31–0.32, which is more than twice the albedo of the Moon’s reflector score of around 0.14–and half again the typical albedo for stony asteroids.” (Mainzer, A.; Gray, T.; et al, August 2011). According to Wikipedia’s page, Albedo, “unusually high radar albedo is indicative of high metal content in asteroids (27 May 2022).
For those wishing to learn more about what transpired as 7335 (1989 JA) passed Earth, enter “7335 (1989 JA)” on Google’s search page. You will be given options to access “space.com,” “livescience.com,” and several other sources which will open a plethora of related facts. If you find something interesting that I did not mention, please share it in the “Comments” below. Also: Please, don’t forget to click the “Like” button before leaving my blog. Thank You for reading!
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Photo Above: by Paris Saliveros at Pixabay.com.
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Sources:
Eds. Wikipedia. (26 May 2022). (7335) 1989 JA. “Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.” Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Powered by MediaWiki. (Retrieved 27 May 2022). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(7335)_1989_JA#cite_note-WISE-2.
Eds. Wikipedia (27 May 2022). Albedo. “Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.” Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Powered by Mediawiki. (Retrieved 27 May 2022). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#Astronomical_albedo.
Mainzer, A.; Gray, T.; Bauer, J.’ Masiero, J.’ McMillan, R. S.; Cutri, R. M.’ et al. (December 2011). NEOWISE Observations of Near-Earth Objects: Preliminary Results. “The Astrophysical Journal.” 743 (2): 17. (Retrieved by Wikipedia 26 September 2016). NEOWISE Observations of Near-Earth Objects: Preliminary Results – NASA/ADS (harvard.edu) on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(7335)_1989_JA#cite_note-WISE-2.
Specktor, Brandon. (24 May 2022). Asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building barreling toward Earth on May 27. “Space.com.” (Retrieved 27 May 2022). https://www.space.com/asteroid-encounter-7335-1989-JA.
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by tkbrown 