NASA lists out 5 hazardous asteroids that are heading for Earth this week

This month is going to be exciting for stargazers as the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, is ready to make its closest approach to Earth in 71 years. While people on Earth will get a chance to have a rare glimpse of it, there will be some threatening asteroids in space that are posing a threat to our planet. Yesterday, three asteroids whizzed past the Earth, one of them being as large as a giant building at 390 feet, while there was a 36 foot asteroid that came terrifyingly close. But there are more coming soon.

NASA’s Asteroid Watch has listed 5 potentially hazardous asteroids that are making their close appearance to Earth in the next few days. Here’s the full list of upcoming asteroids that are hurtling towards our planet.

Upcoming asteroids

• Asteroid 2022 QJ50: A huge 110 foot asteroid is all set to make its closest approach at 2.61 million miles today, September 19. The asteroid is already moving fast with a speed of 10.20 km per second.
• Asteroid 2022 SF: There is another asteroid, 80 foot wide, named 2022 SF which is on its way to make its closest approach to Earth today with a close distance of 3.46 million miles.
• Asteroid 2022 SW1: The latest information stated that a 33 foot asteroid will make an extremely close approach of just 0.42 million miles.
• Asteroid 2022 SH: This will be a 34 foot wide asteroid that will make its closest approach towards Earth on September 20 with a speed of 7.6 km per second. As per the data released by NASA, it will be at a distance of 1.88 million miles from Earth.
• Asteroid 2022 SC1: And this airplane-sized 81-feet wide asteroid 2022 SC1 is approaching the Earth tomorrow at a blazing speed of 10.27 kilometers per second.

Why do these asteroids pose a threat to Earth?

NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth on a daily basis to detect potentially dangerous objects to the planet. An asteroid larger than about 150 meters (around 492-feet) approaching anywhere near Earth within a distance of 4.6 million miles is termed a potentially hazardous object by NASA. This is the reason behind these upcoming asteroids having been termed as potentially hazardous.

Some major telescopes at NASA’s Deep Space Network and the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico help to obtain the most detailed characterization data for these asteroids to ascertain the danger.