Latest news with #AlfredoCarpineti
Metro
6 days ago
- Science
- Metro
Asteroid the size of the Tower of Pisa to make close approach with Earth in days
If you've always wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, all you'll need to do is look up next week. An asteroid roughly the size of the famous Italian landmark is currently hurtling towards Earth at 46,908 miles per hour. The space rock, 2025 OW, will drift past our planet next Monday at a distance of 393,000 miles – about 1.6 times the distance to the Moon. Space officials estimate the rock is about 220 feet across, making it larger than the Leaning Tower of Pisa at 185 feet. 2025 OW is one of five 'planet-sized' asteroids getting up, close and personal with our planet over the next few days, Nasa says. The space agency's Asteroid Watch Dashboard says that 2025 OK1, which is estimated to be about 100 feet across, will fly past us today at a distance of 1,360,000 miles. Another airplane-sized asteroid, 2025-OZ, is also doing a drive-by visit of our home today. As you read this, it's about 3,340,000 miles away. On Saturday, two more giant asteroids will pass by Earth on Saturday: the 110-foot-wide 2025 OX will be 2,810,000 miles above your head. While 2025 OU1, about 140 feet across, will be slightly closer at 1,660,000 miles. But none of these rocks are anything to lose sleep over, astrophysicist, science journalist Alfredo Carpineti told Metro. 'There are over 13,000 near-Earth objects of comparative size that occasionally get near our planet,' the senior writer for IFLScience said. 'They could be dangerous if they hit Earth, but fortunately, these five will all fly well beyond the movement of the Moon.' Asteroids are lumps of rock, dust and metal left behind from the formation of our star system 4.6billion years ago. Most do laps around the Sun between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt, some as small as rubble, and others hundreds of miles in diameter. Earth will be slammed by an asteroid about 300 feet once a decade, while one 10 times the size impacts us every 700,000 years. A space rock measuring just 160 feet in diameter can easily devastate the local area and pockmark the Earth, unleashing a force similar to a nuclear bomb – these happen once a millennium. The so-called 'city-killer' asteroid, 2024 YR4, which officials briefly feared had a 3.1% chance of colliding with Earth, is suspected to be 300 feet across. Our planetary defence options include intentionally smashing a satellite into it to nudge it off course or detonating a nuclear bomb near it. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Italy keep an eye on all these rocks whizzing about. They calculate the odds of an asteroid impact as they plot out the possible orbits, which get more accurate as they observe them more. More Trending This is exactly the case with 2025 OW, with scientists being able to predict its orbit for the next century. As of July, Nasa has discovered more than 38,600 near-Earth asteroids, of which 872 are larger than a kilometre. At least seven wandered close to Earth last month alone, with Nasa keeping an eye on 1,798 near-Earth objects on its 'risk list', though all have next to no chance of striking Earth. 'Still,' continued Carpineti, 'it's important we keep tracking them to know we will stay safe in the future.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: We could get 'proof of aliens by Christmas' after 'interstellar visitor' flies past us MORE: Earth is spinning so fast that today will be shorter – but is time going faster? MORE: We're one step closer to living on the Moon – and it's thanks to something 'magic'
Metro
11-07-2025
- Science
- Metro
A mysterious, ancient '12-mile wide interstellar visitor' is racing towards us
It sounds like the start of a cheesy science-fiction film. A gigantic, ancient, icy… thing spotted hurtling towards us by a lonely astronomer. But this is exactly what happened for stargazers following the discovery of a weird interstellar object called 3I/ATLAS, or 'third interstellar', this month. The object is big – possibly as wide 12 miles, larger than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs – and is speeding towards us at 130,000mph. 3I/Atlas was spotted on July 1 by the NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile, when it was 420million miles away. After being given the catchy name, 'A11pl3Z', scientists soon realised that the object came from interstellar space. As you read this, 3I/ATLAS is about 416million miles away from the Sun and travelling from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. This is only the third time that astronomers have found an uninvited guest in our solar system. First was Oumuamua, a Manhattan-sized, cigar-shaped rock that passed close to us in 2017. For a time, one astronomer suspected it was an alien spaceship. Then, in 2019, the comet Borisov paid us a drive-by visit. Dr Alfredo Carpineti, an astrophysicist living in London, told Metro that our latest 'interstellar interloper' is 'very exciting'. 'What makes it very special is that this object is very different compared to the previous two visitors, Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. It's moving almost twice as fast, for example,' the senior staff writer for IFLScience said. What first gave away that 3I/Atlas is not of our solar system was its eccentric, hyperbolic orbit, meaning it'll loop around the Sun before being flung back out into space. By tracing its celestial footsteps, Dr Carpineti said, it shows that it 'might come from a whole different region of the galaxy compared to the other two'. 'It might be a lot older, at least 7billion years old,' he added. 'Much older than the solar system.' The trajectory of 3I/ATLAS hints that it came from the Milky Way's 'thick disk' – the retirement home of stars on the outskirts of our galaxy – according to a paper seen by Dr Carpineti for IFLScience. Researchers say 3I/ATLAS probably formed around an ancient star and is made up of a lot of water ice. Scientists say it is a comet, a giant, dirty snowball. As it soars towards the Sun, the ice will melt and create a wispy tail. When sunlight bounces off this plume of gas and dust, called a coma, this makes the object appear very bright. A big clue that 3I/ATLAS is a comet is how bright it is – enough that it's already visible using modest-sized telescopes. Asteroids, space rubble, have far darker surfaces. We'll learn more about what 3I/ATLAS is as it zooms closer and closer to us, Dr Carpineti said. More Trending But don't worry, it won't get too close for comfort. 'This interstellar interloper is a cosmic curiosity and it poses no threat to Earth,' he added. 'The closest it will get to the Sun is 210million kilometres, a little bit closer than Mars,' which would be around Halloween or early December. 'At that point, the Earth will be on the other side of the Sun, so we won't even be able to see it at closest approach.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The Simpsons predict the future – again – after scientists plan artificial solar eclipse MORE: Earth is spinning so fast that today will be shorter – but is time going faster? MORE: Scientists now believe Earth is sunken near the centre of a giant cosmic void
