News: NASA has been tracking asteroid 465824 2010 FR which is twice as big as the Pyramid of Giza and is expected to cross the Earth’s orbit on September 6.It is classified as a Near-Earth Object(NEO) and a potentially hazardous asteroid(PHA).
Facts:
- Near-Earth Object(NEO): NASA defines NEOs as comets and asteroids nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.These objects are composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles.
- Potentially Hazardous Asteroid(PHA): They are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance(MOID) of 0.05 au or less are considered PHAs.
Additional Facts:
- Asteroid: They are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun.Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets.
- Comets: They are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun.
