NASA has warned of a huge asteroid that is due to pass Earth today, Thursday (April 28), and it is likely to pose a potential danger.
According to “Science Alert”, the diameter of the asteroid, called 418135 (2008 AG33), is between 1150 and 2560 feet (350 to 780 meters), and it will break into Earth’s orbit at a speed of 23,300 miles per hour (37,400 km / h). Fortunately, the asteroid is expected to pass through our planet without the risk of collision.
At its closest, the asteroid will come about two million miles (3.2 million kilometers) from Earth, which is nearly eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
This may seem like a huge gap, but by cosmic standards, it’s actually a stone’s throw away.
NASA defines any space object within 120 million miles (193 million km) of Earth as a “near-Earth object” and any fast-moving object within 4.65 million miles (7.5 million km) as “potentially dangerous.”
Once the objects are marked, astronomers watch them closely, looking for any deviations from their expected trajectory that could put them on a collision course with Earth.
The next space rock was first discovered on January 12, 2008, by the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter in Arizona, last passed Earth on March 1, 2015, according to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
The asteroid swings close to our planet approximately every seven years, and is expected to come soon on May 25, 2029.
On November 24, 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft as part of the Double Asteroid Redirect Test mission, which plans to redirect a non-hazardous asteroid by colliding off its course, Live Science previously reported.
China is also in the early planning stages of an asteroid redirection mission. By hitting 23 Long March 5 rockets at the asteroid Bennu, the country says it will be able to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact on Earth.