Near earth Objects

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

NASA announced that a giant asteroid named 163348 (2002 NN4) is expected to pass Earth (at a safe distance) on June 6.

Concept:

• Near Earth Objects are comets and asteroids nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits which allows them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.
• These objects are composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles.
• The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is largely due to their status as relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process over 4.6 billion years ago. Therefore, these NEOs offer scientists clues about the chemical mixture from the planets formed.