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NASA has alerted that an absolutely gigantic asteroid is hurtling towards a close approach to Earth today.
Asteroids have several shapes, they may be spherical, elongated, or oddly shaped. Some asteroids even have their own satellites! Asteroids also vary in size. From Vesta, the largest at about 530 kilometers in diameter, to asteroids that are less than 10 meters in diameter, they can be found in all shapes and sizes. The past 3 months have witnessed dozens of asteroid flybys each month. Now, NASA has warned that an asteroid is speeding towards the planet today and, at 2427 feet, it is absolutely gigantic!
Asteroid 2022 RM4
November’s first asteroid flyby, the asteroid, named as Asteroid 2022 RM4 is gigantic in size, ranging between 1082 feet and 2427 feet in diameter, making it one of the largest asteroids to fly by Earth all year. That is nearly as big as the famous Eiffel Tower! The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth today, November 1, at a distance of 2.2 million kilometers. It is already on its way towards the planet travelling at a mind-boggling speed of nearly 84492 kilometers per hour!
According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 RM4 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was discovered on September 12. This asteroid takes 1398 days to complete one trip around the Sun during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 584 million kilometers and nearest distance is 148 million kilometers.
Bennu asteroid studied by OSIRIS-REx spacecraft
NASA JPL has been observing an asteroid named Bennu which orbits the sun every 1.2 years and makes a relatively close approach to Earth about every six years. The space agency has mapped the trajectory of the Bennu asteroid, which as a diameter of nearly 1,614 feet, using the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft up to the year 2135 using 29 radar observations and 478 optical observations of the asteroid, conducted by trackers around the world between September 1999 and January 2011.
According to NASA JPL, the close approach with Earth in the year 2135 will change the asteroid’s trajectory a little and could potentially result in an Earth impact between 2175 and 2199.
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