Monitor the risk of collisions between giant meteorites and Earth

Russia's telescope has discovered a giant meteorite that can plunge into the Earth in the future. If this collision occurs, the explosion will be 1,000 times more powerful than the 2013 Chelyabinsk case.

2014 UR116 meteorite was discovered through automatic telescopes located in the mountains near the city of Kislovodsk. 2014 UR116 has a diameter of about 370m, larger than the size of Apophis, a meteorite that was once thought to be a "global affliction ".

If a collision occurs between 2014 UR116 meteorite and Earth, the explosion will be 1,000 times larger than the explosion in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February last year.(Artwork: NASA / Reuters)

Scientific Russia reported that 2014 UR116 has a large size and the collision with the Earth will be "catastrophic" . At that time, it would be 1,000 times more powerful than the meteorite explosion in the sky of Chelyabinsk.

Victor Shor, expert of the Institute of Applied Astronomy, said giant meteorites may not harm the Earth for at least the next 6 years. Currently, the closest position of 2014 orbit UR116 is 4.5 million km from Earth.

The trajectory of 2014 UR116 is changing erratically because it also moves near Venus and Mars, while the gravity of these planets may also affect its orbit. According to RT, after identifying the new object, the Russian expert team transferred the data to colleagues at the Smithsonian astrophysical observatory. Thus, observatories in the world can study 2014 UR116 and determine the correct orbit.

On February 15 last year, meteorites about 15 meters in diameter plunged into the atmosphere at 64,000km / hr and exploded at a height of 19-24km above the ground. The collision caused meteorite rain in the sky of the provinces of Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Kyrgan and Sverdlovsk, as well as many localities along the Urals Mountains.

The energy source in the meteorite when exploded is estimated to be equivalent to the explosion of about 300-500,000 tons of TNT, and is 30 times stronger than the power of the Hiroshima bomb, Japan, 1945. .