tech.hindustantimes.com
13.09.2023 / 06:03
Asteroid alert! 180-foot space rock set for first-ever close approach to Earth, shares NASA
For millions of years, asteroids have posed a threat to Earth. Although humanity only discovered its first-ever asteroid on January 1, 1801, these ancient space rocks have time and again impacted Earth's surface, altering the course of history. To understand asteroids better, and study the ones not located in the asteroid belt, NASA launched its Lucy mission on October 16, 2021, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is aimed at studying the Trojans, a group of asteroids that orbit the Sun in two groups, according to NASA. It is built to seek out trojan asteroids millions of kilometers from Earth. Recently, the spacecraft caught a glimpse of its first Trojan asteroid, Dinikinesh, which is about half a kilometer wide.