Meteorite ‘Tautetis’ to come closer to Earth today

Wednesday afternoon will be very special for astronomers when a large meteorite is predicted to pass closer to the earth. According to N Raghunandan Kumar, Director and secretary of Planetary Society of India, the asteroid, 4179 Tautetis, will pass very close from Earth at a distance of 69 lakh 31 thousand 175 kilometers from the blue planet.

Though, there is nothing to be scared of it. The meteorite will come closer to Earth on Wednesday afternoon. This meteorite is moving at a speed of 11.9 km per second. The meteorite comes from a region nearby Earth and it has its own orbit too. Given its large mass, it predicted that it could destroy some parts of the Earth.

The meteorite was discovered on January 4, 1989 and was named after tribal icon Tautetis. It is expected that it will come close to Earth again on December 16, 2016. Earlier it was viewed closer to the Earth on November 9, 2008. After December 16, 2016, it would not appear until 2069 in the vicinity of the Earth.



Source: http://post.jagran.com