NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has shared updates for the ‘next five asteroid approaches’.
While NASA figures out how to bring a $10 quintillion asteroid back to Earth, several others are set to fly by and there’s one which is set to approach tonight (December 23).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s California Institute of Technology’s ‘Asteroid Watch’ details the ‘next five asteroid approaches’ to Earth.
A space rock – titled 2024 XN1 – the size of an airplane, roughly 120 feet big, is set to reach its closest point to Earth at around 10pm EST tonight.
The MailOnline reports the asteroid will go past Earth at a speed of a whopping 14,743 mph.
However, you don’t need to be worrying anytime soon.
The closest Earth approach – how close it will come to our planet – measures 4,480,000 miles.
Astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Jess Lee, told MailOnline: “It will be very far away, around 18 times further away from the Earth than the Moon is, and so with this predicted path won’t come close enough to hit the Earth.”
And assistant professor of space and international relations at Johns Hopkins University explained to Newsweek the reason these types of asteroids and comets are called ‘near-Earth objects of NEOS’ is when they have ‘a perihelion distance (closest to the Sun) less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU), or approximately 120 million miles’.
It only becomes potentially hazardous if the asteroid ‘has an orbit intersecting the Earth’s orbit around the Sun by less than 0.05 astronomical units (1 AU is the distance to the Sun), that’s just over 4.5 million miles,’ professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester Martin Barstow told Newsweek.
And in order to cause any ‘significant regional damage’ to Earth if it did hit, an asteroid would also have to have ‘an absolute brightness of 22.0 or less’.
“Not all NEOs are potentially hazardous, but all hazardous objects are NEOs.”
But if you miss the one tonight, fear not because there are plenty more coming up.
An asteroid the size of a bus is expected to fly by Earth on Christmas Day, another the size of an airplane is expected on Boxing Day and a second the size of a bus will be making a fly by the day after that.
