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A 100-foot asteroid is zooming towards Earth tomorrow. Should you worry about it? Know what NASA says.
You may have heard many reports of upcoming asteroids that pose a serious danger to the Earth. But did you know that these asteroids are relatively small inactive bodies composed of rocky, dusty, and metallic materials, which orbit around the Sun. Most of them are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. However, there are some monster rocks that follow paths that circulate into the inner solar system which also include the near-Earth asteroids. These are the main dangers that keep NASA scientists in active mode all the time to assess how hazardous these asteroids really are- in short, will they come too close to Earth, will they crash into it, or just fly by.
Notably, one of these asteroids named Asteroid 2022 UN5 is on its way to Earth tomorrow! It is a 100-foot giant in diameter and is hurtling towards Earth at a speed of 29520 kmph. NASA’s JPL data has informed us that this space rock will come as close as 3.51 million miles to Earth. Hence, NASA listed it as a potentially hazardous asteroid. This is so because an asteroid is said to be potentially hazardous based on two factors – distance from the Earth and its size.
According to this, any asteroid that comes within 4.6 million miles or 7.5 million kilometers to Earth, or if it measures larger than about 150 meters, it can be termed as a potentially hazardous asteroid. So, that is why asteroid 2022 UN5 is said to be a potential threat to Earth as it will make a close approach of 3.51 million miles. But that’s not all!
We are in constant danger from Asteroids!
NASA says that we are in constant danger from asteroids every day. It says around 80 to 100 tons of material falls upon Earth from space in the form of dust and small meteorites, which are basically small fragments of big asteroids. Thankfully, most of them are too small to bother us as they burn up in the atmosphere itself. However some do reach the Earth and crash into it. These are referred to as meteorites. They end up doing very little, if any, damage.
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