A nearly 100-ft asteroid is approaching Earth today, says NASA
A potentially hazardous 98-foot-wide asteroid, dubbed 2022 WU11, is approaching Earth today, as per NASA. The planetoid is hurtling toward the blue planet at a fiery speed of 38,026km/h. It will make the closest approach to the Earth at a distance of 4.4 million kilometers. The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is closely monitoring the movement of the space rock.
Why does this story matter?
An asteroid collision with Earth can have serious consequences and lead to the end of life. Since the collision poses a serious threat to the living creatures on Earth, the collision must be evaded. NASA and other space as well as defense agencies now regularly monitor flight paths of near-Earth Asteroids and are readying asteroid collision avoidance techniques to save life on Earth.
2022 WU11 is approaching Earth at lightning speed
The 2022 WU11 asteroid belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and was discovered recently on November 27 as per sky.org. NASA's JPL has said that the airplane-sized asteroid is approaching the Earth at a speed of 38,026km/h. The space agency will continue to keep an eye on the movement of the rock until it passes by the Earth.
Its proximity to Earth will be 4.4 million kilometers
The asteroid will pass by the Earth at a distance of 4.4 million kilometers. As per astronomers, any object that comes within 7.4 million kilometers of Earth's radius is classified as "potentially hazardous." Despite being so close, the sky rock, as per NASA, is expected to pass by the Earth safely if there are no alterations in its path.
The solar system is full of asteroids
As per NASA, 30,503 near-Earth asteroids are known as of November 2022, and among them, 2,304 are sufficiently large and may come close to Earth. Meanwhile, the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter contains approximately 1.5 million asteroids, with a diameter of over 1 kilometer. The space agency is constantly on the lookout for near-Earth objects (NEOs) using Earth and sky-based technologies.
