📷 Image Credits: News9 LIVE
An asteroid travelling at humongous speed is all set to come very close to Earth today. The asteroid today will make its closest approach to Earth at just 3,270,000 miles, reports US space agency NASA. An asteroid is a space rock, made up of metal, dust and other materials that orbit the Sun just like planets like Earth, Mars, Venus do. However, they are not classified as planets. In fact, most asteroids are found in a region called the asteroid belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. And how many asteroids are there in asteroid belt? Anything between 1 mn to 1.9 million, NASA reveals. Coming back to the asteroid that is going to come very close to Earth today about which NASA has raised an alarm is that it as big as 77 feet. It has been classified in the Apollo group of asteroids and dubbed as a near-Earth Object. An asteroid is classified as a NEO if it comes anywhere near 45 million kilometres of Earth. The asteroid is travelling at a tremendous rate of 10094 kilometres per hour. Is there any reason to worry about this asteroid crashing on Earth? While this asteroid, or any other such space object that comes very near Earth generates a lot of attention, NASA does not expect it to change its course and head directly towards Earth. It will pass at the distance mentioned earlier. However, do know that whenever these asteroids pass large objects like planets, their massive gravity field can alter their flight path. For instance Jupiter has done that on a number of occasions. According to a theory, Jupiter was responsible for dragging the asteroid towards Earth that killed all the dinosaurs and paved the may for mammals like humans to dominate the Earth with their presence. And that is another reason why NASA keeps a close watch on all these stray asteroids tumbling towards our planet. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies estimates the space rock is between 690 feet and 1,575 feet across. That means the asteroid could be similar in size to New York City’s Empire State Building or Chicago’s Willis Tower. NASA refers to it as “stadium size.” NASA gives the “potentially hazardous” label to objects that pass within 4.6 million miles of Earth and are bigger than 492 feet, according to Forbes magazine.
