A 500-foot-wide asteroid called 2010 XC15 will pass by Earth on December 27. While it has no intention of hitting us, it’s us who will hit the asteroid with a radio pulse.

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and NASA want to examine the 2010 XC15 space rock to test their preparation against Apophis. This dangerous asteroid might hit our planet in 2029. It is believed that on April 13, 2029, Apophis will be 10 times closer to Earth than the moon.

The researchers will use the HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) array to shoot 9.6 megahertz radio waves at the 2010 XC15 asteroid. HAARP is a government-funded research program that generally studies the ionosphere (part of Earth’s atmosphere at 50 to 400 miles above the surface).

However, this will be the first time it will be employed to examine an asteroid.

HAARP will dig deep into the asteroid

Astronomers have been shooting radio waves in space to spot asteroids; figure out their shape, trajectory, structure of their surface, and many other characteristics. For this purpose, they use radio waves having frequency ranges either in the S-band (2,000 to 4,000 MHz) or X-band (8,000 to 12,000 MHz).

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