A giant stadium-sized asteroid is heading towards the Earth, NASA scientists have called it extremely dangerous. It is expected to fly past the Earth on July 24, 2021.
As per NASA report, the giant asteroid is approaching the Earth at a speed of 8 km per second, which is about 28,800 thousand km per hour. The speed at which it is hurtling is so high that anything in its path would be destroyed in the event of a collision.
The asteroid Near-Earth Object (NEO) is reported to be around 20 meters wide and will be visible from a distance of 28,70,847,607 km, which is 8 times the total distance between Earth and the Moon.
Will the giant asteroid collide with the Earth?
Though scientists have placed the asteroid in the category of potentially dangerous asteroids, it is unlikely to hit the Earth. The asteroid is likely to pass through an orbit called Apollo in the intervening night of July 24 and July 25.
NASA scientists will be constantly monitoring the asteroid.
2008 GO20 Asteroid-Everything you need to know!
• The giant asteroid is called 2008 GO20 and it flew past the Earth previously on June 20, 2008.
• The near-earth asteroid could be up to 220 metres wide and is significantly larger than a football field.
• It is expected to fly past Earth at a speed of 8.2 km per second and will be about 3-4 million kilometres away from our planet, eight to nine times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
When will the 2008 GO20 asteroid fly past Earth?
The giant asteroid is expected to fly past Earth on Saturday, July 24 in Europe, which would be early morning on Sunday, July 25 in Indian Standard Time.
What is an Asteroid?Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the sun like planets. They are much smaller than planets and are considered to be the most ancient objects in the solar system. Some asteroids have been found to be orbiting other planets as well. As per scientists, when our solar system was developing about 4.5 billion years ago, some clouds of gas and smoke that could not evolve into planets, became asteroids. |
What are near-earth objects?The near-earth objects are asteroids and comets that come close to Earth, according to US space agency NASA. A majority of near-earth objects are asteroids and are called Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). |
Are there any other asteroids that can potentially hit the Earth?
As per scientists, there are about one million asteroids and 22 asteroids could potentially prove to be dangerous for the Earth in the next 100 years.
Background
A similar event had occurred in June, when an asteroid similar in size to the Eiffel Tower, came close to the Earth. The asteroid called 2021 KT1 had approached Earth at a distance of 4.5 million kilometres. It was classified as “potentially hazardous” by the scientists, as anything closer than 4.6 million kilometres is potentially dangerous.