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Comets, meteor showers, the disappearance of Mercury, until an asteroid approaches Earth on the 15th of Ramadan will be a celestial phenomenon that adorns the sky this week.
Interestingly, there are a number of meteors that will cross the earth this week. According to the NEO Earth Close Approaches data table, there are five asteroids (2009 XO, 2020 JE, 2020 JF, 2020 HM4, 2016 HP6) that approach Earth on 7 May 2020.
Furthermore, one asteroid (2020 HB6) approaches Earth on May 8, and the 2020 HC6 asteroid moves closer to Earth on May 9, 2020. The asteroid is classified as an Apollo asteroid with a diameter of 16 meters to 470 meters.
In addition, there are two comets that passed this week near Earth. The two comets are the Swan and Halley comets. Comet Swan will be the brightest comet so far this year, while Halley's comet causes a meteor shower on Earth's sky.
LAPAN and the Bosscha Observatory have stated that asteroids are not in the dangerous category. Here are the facts about Asteroid 2016 HP6:
- Closer to Earth than the asteroid last April
Asteroid 2016 HP6 will have the closest distance of 1.66 million kilometers from Earth. The distance is the same as 4.3 times the distance of the Earth and Moon. with a relative speed of 5.72 kilometers per second when approaching Earth.
For comparison, the 1998 OR2 meteor which passed Earth on April 29 was only 6.3 million kilometers from Earth or 16 times the distance of Earth and the Moon.
- No potential danger
This asteroid has a minimum orbital intersection distance (MOID) of 0.0053817 SA or 805 thousand kilometers to Earth's orbit, which is much smaller than 0.05 SA or 7.5 million kilometers.
However, the absolute magnitude of this asteroid is greater than +22. Therefore, this object cannot be categorized as a potentially hazardous object (Potentially Hazardous Object, PHO).
- Smaller than the asteroid last April
LAPAN said the 2016 HP6 asteroid was between 23 and 52 meters. This size is much smaller than the OR 1998 which measures between 1.8 to 4.1 kilometers that passed at the end of April.
- Crossing the middle of Ramadan
LAPAN and the Bosscha Observatory said the asteroid would be close to Earth on May 8, 2020 at 04.49 West Indonesia Time. This means that the date coincides with the 15th of Ramadan 1441 or the middle of the month of Ramadan 1441 H.
Once again, we need not worry too much, let alone related to the 15th Ramadan, in terms of religious propositions that do not exist and in science there is no approach (asteroid). But, return everything to God, because we can die at any time, "Abdul Rachman said during a live broadcast from Bern, Switzerland, quoting Antara on Monday (4/5).
He explained that asteroids can move closer or away from Earth. An asteroid can move up to a distance of 10 million kilometers from Earth, but that does not mean it will fall.
"No need to worry, the longer the observation of space will be more careful. From 1999 to 2018 the number of asteroids is increasing which we can observe, so we anticipate it after it can be observed. So don't worry about something that will happen to this Earth," he said .
