The asteroid 2023 DW, discovered on February 26 by the Chilean observatory, excited astronomers at the time and generated some disturbing headlines in the international press. The size of an Olympic pool and orbiting the Sun, it threatened to crash into Earth 23 years later, on Valentine’s Day.
But the likelihood that in 2023 DW will crash somewhere in the United States, Southeast Asia or Australia – the countries and regions most at risk of impact – or, more likely, sink into the Pacific Ocean, “significantly reduced” over the past few days, according to the American newspaper Daily Mail. Oregonian.
At the height of the threat, on Sunday, March 12, the asteroid had a one in 432 chance of passing through Earth’s atmosphere. On Tuesday, the probability dropped to one chance in 1,584, according to the ESA, and it should fall to zero in the coming days.
What if NASA and ESA got it wrong?…. “It wouldn’t have been as catastrophic as the 12 km diameter asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs when it crashed into Earth 66 million years ago.”provides space.com. Given its size, 2023 DW will only cause “local damage”without significant impact on the rest of the planet.
This does not prevent space agencies from working on “different ways to deflect the trajectory of dangerous asteroids if one of them rushed straight towards our planet”indicates the site.
For example, on September 26, 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos, located about 11 million kilometers from Earth, and managed to change course.
Source: Courrier International
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