On November 16, 2023, the new asteroid 2023 WA was discovered. A day later, on November 17, it passed only 27 thousand km from the center of the Earth. That is, approximately where the orbits of geostationary satellites are located. Its speed relative to the Earth was almost 18 km/s. Since the diameter of the asteroid is estimated at about 10 meters, its fall to Earth would not cause serious damage. The consequences of an asteroid explosion in the atmosphere would be about the same as in the explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteorite in 2013.
The orbit of asteroid 2023 WA has points of intersection with the orbit of Earth and the orbit of Venus. The aphelion of its orbit lies in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Due to its close approach to the Earth, its orbit has changed a lot. It has increased in size and has become more elongated. The orientation of the orbit in space has also changed slightly. However, the points of intersection with the orbits of Earth and Venus have been preserved. Therefore, in the future, asteroid 2023 WA may well collide with one of these planets.
Modeling and rendering were performed by author of this publication using own software. The calculations took into account the mutual influence of the Sun, all the planets of the Solar System, the Moon and the asteroid on each other. Relativistic effects were also taken into account in the calculation.
The track I Can’t Remember by Uuriter sounds in this video. This track was not changed. CC BY 4.0 DEED (Attribution 4.0 International) license.
