A huge asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building will approach Earth on May 27, according to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
Don’t be afraid of him asteroid, called 7335 (1989 JA), will miss our planet by about 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles), or almost 10 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon. However, given the enormous size of the space rock (1.1 miles or 1.8 km in diameter) and its relatively close proximity to Earth, NASA has classified the asteroid as “potentially dangerous.” which means it could do enormous damage to our planet if its orbit. it always changes and the rock hits the Earth.
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According to NASA, 7335 (1989 JA) is the largest asteroid to land on Earth this year. Scientists estimate that the asteroid travels at about 47,200 mph (76,000 km / h), or 20 times faster than a high-speed bullet. The rock will not make another nearby flyby until June 23, 2055, when it will pass even farther than this flyby, or within about 70 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
This asteroid is one of more than 29,000 near-Earth (NEO) objects that NASA tracks every year. NEOs refer to any astronomical object that passes about 48 million km from Earth’s orbit, according to NASA. Most of these objects are extremely small; 7335 (1989 JA) measures more than 99% of the NEOs that NASA follows, the agency said.
(Image credit: Getty)
7335 (1989 JA) also fits into a class of asteroids called the Apollo class, which refers to asteroids orbiting the sun as they periodically cross Earth’s orbit (it opens in a new tab). previously reported Live Science. Astronomers know about 15,000 such asteroids.
NASA is closely monitoring NEOs like this and recently launched a mission to test whether potentially dangerous asteroids could one day deviate from a course of collision with Earth. In November 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will collide head-on with the 525-foot-wide (160-meter) asteroid Dimorphos in the fall of 2022. it will destroy the asteroid (it opens in a new tab), but it may slightly change the orbital path of the rock, Live Science previously reported.
Originally published in Live Science.