NASA Confirms 36-Meter Long Asteroid Heading Close To Earth And Moon
NASA CONFIRMS ASTEROID – A 36-meter long asteroid will be approaching the earth and moon at a whopping 12.6 kilometers per second.
According to an article from the Sun, the asteroid known as 2020 PT4 will pass by our planet and moon in what NASA described as a “near-earth” approach. Furthermore, the Asteroid would be traveling at an incredible 12.6 kilometers per second, or 45,360 kilometers per hour.
With that kind of speed, it could go back and forth from the United Kingdom to New York over eight times in an hour. Meanwhile, the large 18-wheeler sized rock would pass 4.9 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon (1,883,153 kilometres).
Despite the massive distance between the object and our planet, NASA described it as a near-Earth object or NEO. As per the article, NASA explained that NEOs are a perfect opportunity to study more about the solar system.
Moreover, NASA emphasized that even if the asteroid would hit Earth, it wouldn’t add to the many series of unfortunate events already happening. NASA explained that if the asteroid were to hit, it would be similar to the Chelyabinsk event.
Back in 2013, a 20-meter meteor crashed over Chelyabinsk in Russia. This caused damage to property and injured more than 1,000 people. However, no serious or critical injuries have been reported.
Still, NASA believes that the asteroid shouldn’t be a cause for concern as only 1 in 300,000 asteroids have a chance to hit the planet every year. But, NASA said in the unlikely event it would happen, an asteroid could still cause devastating damage.
As such, NASA is developing plans to protect Earth from the possibility of an asteroid-related catastrophe.
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