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Timescale Artist's impression of the Moon during the Late Heavy Bombardment (above) and today (below). The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), or lunar cataclysm, is a hypothesized astronomical event thought to have occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years (Ga) ago, [1] at a time corresponding to the Neohadean and Eoarchean eras on Earth.
The asteroid's provisional designation as a minor planet, "2024 YR 4", was assigned by the Minor Planet Center when its discovery was announced on 27 December 2024. [2] 2024 indicates the discovery year, the first letter, "Y", indicates that the asteroid was discovered in the second half-month of December (16 to 31 December) of that year, and "R 4" indicates that it was the 117th provisional ...
Diagram showing spacecraft and notable asteroids (past and future) between the Earth and the Moon. Plot of orbits of known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (size over 140 m [460 ft] and passing within 7.6 million km [4.7 million mi] of Earth's orbit) as of early 2013 ( alternate image )
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
2000 EM 26 is a sub-kilometer near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Aten group, approximately 110 meters (360 feet) in diameter.It was first observed by astronomers of the LINEAR program on 5 March 2000 and followed until 14 March 2000, by which time it had dimmed to apparent magnitude 20 [1] and was 40° from the Moon. [5]
Among the numbered minor planets with an unambiguous period solution are (459872) 2014 EK 24, a 60-meter sized stony NEO with a period of 352 seconds, as well as (335433) 2005 UW 163 and (60716) 2000 GD 65, two main-belt asteroids, with a diameter of 0.86 and 2.25 kilometers and a period of 1.29 and 1.95 hours, respectively (see full list).
For asteroids that are on track to hit Earth, the predicted probability of impact never stops increasing as more observations are made. This initially very similar pattern makes it difficult to quickly differentiate between asteroids which will be millions of kilometres from Earth and those which will hit it.
The total mass of all the asteroids combined is only 3% that of Earth's Moon. The majority of main belt asteroids follow slightly elliptical, stable orbits, revolving in the same direction as the Earth and taking from three to six years to complete a full circuit of the Sun. [4] Asteroids have historically been observed from Earth.