Small asteroid to pass Earth: NASA
LOS ANGELES, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Near-Earth asteroid 1 2011 MD will whip past Earth on June 27, but will not pose any threat, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said on Friday.
The asteroid will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the Earth's surface at about 9:30 EDT, according to JPL in Pasadena, Los Angeles.
This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday, JPL said.
If a rocky asteroid the size of 2011 MD were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would be expected to burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth's surface, said JPL.
The accompanying diagram gives a view of the asteroid's trajectory 2 from the general direction of the Sun. This view indicates that 2011 MD will reach its closest Earth approach point in extreme southern latitudes 3 (in fact over the southern Atlantic Ocean), according to JPL. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring, JPL said.
For a brief time, it may be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope.
One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every six years on average.
The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)
- Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
- It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。
- It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
- The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。