A massive asteroid is set to approach the planet Earth this month.
ASTEROID – The Rock, a massive asteroid which was named after Dwayne Johnson, is set to make its closest approach to the planet Earth on April 19.
Based on a recent report in MSN News, the size played the major factor why the massive asteroid was named after Johnson, a wrestler. The said massive asteroid travels space at around 33 meters per second (73 mph).
Its closest approach to the planet Earth in 400 years will happen on the 19th day of April as ‘The Rock’ will approach at a 1.1 million miles distance which goes slightly above four times the distance between the moon and the human-inhabited planet.
In terms of the length, according t0 the news report, ‘The Rock’ is between 650 meters and 1.4 kilometers. The massive asteroid will not approach this close to the planet again for at least the incoming 500 years.
Based on the news report, this massive asteroid is officially addressed as 2014 JO25. The observation conducted by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona three years ago has led to the astronomers’ discovery of the massive asteriod ‘The Rock’.
For a massive asteroid, this is known to be a close approach to the planet. It is quite normal for small asteroids to come close to the Earth with this distance but it is not plebeian with an asteroid of the massive size.
Based on the news report, there is no chance that the asteroid will collide with the human-inhabited planet. When it comes to The Rock’s physical attributes, the details aren’t that much.
A feature that was revealed in the report is something about the surface of The Rock.
According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the massive asteroid’s surface is two times as reflective as the surface of the moon.
Based on the report, it will be on 2027 that the next instance wherein an asteroid with the same large size as The Rock will travel space will occur. It will be the asteroid 1999 AN10.
According to Robotic telescope service Slooh, the close approach of the massive asteroid serves as an “alarming reminder”.
“Even a 30 metre sized asteroid can cause significant damage to a major city,” Slooh expressed based on the report. Slooh added that an asteroid of the same size as The Rock can bring ” calamitous effect at the local and even regional level.”