NASA Identifies a Dangerous Asteroid Running Past Earth on Christmas
A dangerous asteroid identified by NASA as possibly dangerous is three days away from passing past our planet. The asteroid’s expected path is being tracked by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
NASA Identifies a Dangerous Asteroid Running Past Earth on Christmas
The Space Agency’s researchers approximate the rock is flying towards Earth at breakneck rates of almost 27,400mph. At such a speed, NASA anticipates the space object to close in on our planet right after December 25th, on Boxing Day, December 26. Also, the asteroid will arrive on our planet’s corner of space approximately at 7.54 am GMT. Scientists dubbed the cosmic feature Asteroid 2000 CH59. According to NASA’s forecasts, the space object is big enough to level a whole continent should it come collapsing into Earth.
An asteroid at the above side of around 918ft to 2,034ft as CH59 is similar in height to Chicago’s Sears Tower. NASA stated, “Potentially hazardous asteroids are about 150 meters – almost 500ft – or larger, roughly twice as big as the Statue of Liberty is tall. They approach Earth’s orbit to within 7.5 million kilometers – about 4.6 million miles.”
NASA Keeps an Eye on Threatening Space Rocks
NASA maintains its close observation on rushing asteroids close to Earth because of their harmful potential. For example, when a six mile-broad space object crashed the Earth 66 million years ago, the result harmed a mass extinctions that ended the life dinosaurs. There are, however, even at smaller asteroids, significant adverse consequences.
Back in 2013, a 20m-broad space object arrived in Earth’s atmosphere unidentified and crashed over Russia. The resulting airblast scattered over an extensive range, destroying thousands of buildings and harming more than 1,000 people with pieces of blown-out windows. NASA’s astronomers considered that incident a “wake-up call” to the threats hiding in deep space. Since then, the Space Agency tried to keep an eye wide-open at every potential cosmic feature.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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