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A 430-foot long asteroid designated as 1994 WR12 plowed through the orbital path of Earth between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. PST on Monday, November 29th. The asteroid, first discovered by legendary astronomer Carolyn S. Shoemaker is the latest in a string of close-call Asteroids to pass near too close for comfort to our planet in the last five years.
The total count of known asteroids passing within one lunar distance or less to the earth jumped in 2016 from 27 the year before to 60, nearly matched in 2017 with 56 and almost doubling in 2018 to 91 near misses! The skies became largely quiet in 2019 with a mere 17, but 2020 stunned astronomers with 106, and over half of those were located AFTER they passed us by. So far in 2021 no fewer than 152 asteroids have ‘buzzed’ the Earth, passing closer than our moon.
CBS Sacramento reported,
“The JPL Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) classified it as an Earth Impact Risk until 2016 when it was removed from their Sentry List after several observations.
According to NASA astronomers, the impact of the 1994 WR12 on Earth would produce energy equivalent to 77 megatons of TNT, making it 112 times more powerful than the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated.”
1994 WR12 while further away at about 16 lunar distances is much, MUCH larger than other flybys, hence the attention. And due to its size was actually visible from the West Coast.
The #NearEarthObject #NEO (1994 WR12) is flying by at a distance of around 6,200,000 km (which is 16 Lunar Distances). It is travelling past at a speed of about 8.8 km/s. pic.twitter.com/NmGrGOd31x
— Near Earth Object close approach (@flybyneo) November 29, 2021
What If 1994 WR12 Struck the Earth?
If the giant space rock were to strike the Earth though Professor Alan Duffy, head of the Space Technology and Industry Institute told CBS, “Don’t look at it.” citing the catastrophic airburst of the Chelyabinsk impact in Russia of 2013.
“I mean, it‘s going to be hard not to – the brightness of the glare from these objects burning up in the atmosphere,” said the Professor. “That‘s actually what caused a lot of the injuries in Chelyabinsk (a meteor strike in Russia in 2013), people not unreasonably looked up at this enormous burning fireball in the sky, whose brightness was essentially that of the Sun by the time it finally erupted, that caused a lot of retina damage – so make sure you’re not looking right at it.”
Check out the awesome video about the Chelyabinsk impact below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB2eoQfOGBA
