NASA monitors the nearest object passing over Earth

Washington: America's space agency (NASA) announced that a newly discovered car-sized asteroid just made the closest-known flyby to Earth at a mere 2,950 kilometers.

According to NASA experts, the asteroid 2020 QG, which extends 3 to 6 meters in diameter across the southern Indian Ocean, last Sunday, wrapped about 45 degrees, due to the force of Earth's gravity. Experts said there is no reason to be concerned. Because of its size, the asteroid most likely would not have posed any danger to humans had it hit Earth, as it would have exploded upon entering the atmosphere.

The experts explained that asteroids of this size and this close usually pass over the earth, but it is difficult to detect them unless they are heading directly towards our planet, as the explosion that they cause can be seen when they enter the atmosphere. 

In 2013, a much larger asteroid exploded in the skies above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, blowing out thousands of windows and it was only 18 meters in diameter, but was considered large enough to cause significant local damage. 

Another example appeared in December 2018 when an undiscovered asteroid crashed, which was 10 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki over the Bering Sea.

2020 QG exceeded our planet at a distance of less than 3000 km, which means that it approached most of the commercial satellites orbiting the Earth, and one of the tasks of NASA is tracking such larger asteroids, whose length exceeds 140 meters, as it can cause severe damage.

The importance of detecting this type is to highlight the importance of asteroid detection systems, and that our planetary defenses need to be strengthened, in the event of more serious threats to the Earth's course in the future, and to face the dangers and disasters resulting from them.