Huge Asteroid Is Hurtling Towards Earth

A huge asteroid is hurtling towards Earth.

Asteroids are minor planets – an object that is neither a comet nor a planet – that orbits within the inner solar system, and their shapes and sizes vary a lot.

There are millions of asteroids in our solar system, but very few could potentially have an impact on Earth.

Despite that, NASA has discovered a huge asteroid that is heading in the direction of our planet.

Find out more about NASA’s asteroid-deflecting spacecraft below…

NASA has announced that the huge rock – which is scientifically known as 2013 WV44 – will fly past at around 9am BST (4am EST) on Wednesday, June 28.

The size of the asteroid is believed to be 542 ft in diameter which would make it bigger than both Big Ben (310 ft) and The London Eye (394 ft) – while being slightly smaller than The Gherkin building (591 ft).

2013 WV44 will be travelling at a speed of 11.8km per second – which is just over 26,000 miles per hour and roughly 34 times the speed of sound.

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However, even though it is travelling in Earth’s direction it will not get any closer than 0.02334 astronomical units (au) – which is about 2.1 million miles – making it a further distance away than the moon.

Although, NASA is still treating the asteroid as a near-earth object (NEO).

This is because the space organisation defines NEOs as anything that comes within 1.3 au.

NASA explains: “Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.

“Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

“In terms of orbital elements, NEOs are asteroids and comets with perihelion distance q less than 1.3 AU.”

Despite it heading towards Earth, it will not be recognised as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), as explained by Japanese astronomer Atsuo Asami on Twitter.

He writes: “2013 WV44 will approach from the Earth to about 3.49 million km (about 9 times the distance to the Moon) at around 18:07 on June 28, 2023 (JST).

“It has an estimated diameter of 71-160m. Although it is not a PHA, it is relatively large.”

NASA has been tracking all upcoming asteroids that come anywhere remotely near Earth and have even predicted that we are safe from any potential dangers for at least 100 years.

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But on the off chance that we could face an unexpected threat from an asteroid, the space agency has already got something prepared to protect us.

Last year, NASA launched a spacecraft – roughly the size of a refrigerator – that knocked a piece of space rock off its course.

The success of this mission means that Earth has some sort of defence to protect us from any life-threatening asteroids.

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