NASA Warned That The 460-Ft Asteroid 2019 AG3 Flew Past Earth Today
A giant asteroid dubbed as Asteroid 2019 AG3, a massive space rock, according to the US space agency, flew past Earth today, in the early hours of the morning (GMT), NASA warned. The worrying part of this event, otherwise a common thing, was that NASA has only spotted it about one month ago, on December 12th. Luckily, the massive space rock was not on an impact trajectory with our planet.
To make an idea about how big is the Asteroid 2019 AG3, then you should know that the space rock is twice as large as a Boeing 747. In case the Earth was hit by such a space rock, our planet would’ve been in a lot of trouble. Possibly, the life on Earth would’ve ended.
“Larger Near-Earth Objects greater than 140 meters have the potential to inflict severe damage to entire regions or continents. Such objects would strike Earth with a minimum energy of over 60 megatons of TNT, which is more than the most powerful nuclear device ever tested. Fortunately, these are far less common and are easier to detect and track than smaller Near-Earth Objects,” said NASA in a statement.
NASA Warned That the 460-Ft Asteroid 2019 AG3 Flew Past Earth Today
“After almost two decades of search, NASA and its partners have cataloged about one-third of the estimated 25,000 NEAs that are at least 140 meters. Thankfully, Asteroid 2019 AG3 missed the Earth by more than three million miles (4.9 million km),” the US space agency added.
“As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth. Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometers,” NASA continued.
In astronomical measurements, Asteroid 2019 AG3 just flew next to Earth, as it whizzed next to our planet by about 5 million kilometers. Even though NASA and other space agencies keep an eye on Near-Earth Objects, the Asteroid 2019 AG3 has been noticed only about a month ago, as the US space agency admitted.
Vadim is a passionate writer on various topics but especially on stuff related to health, technology, and science. Therefore, for Great Lakes Ledger, Vadim will cover health and Sci&Tech news.
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