As if human beings don’t have enough to deal with already, NASA has revealed that a “potentially hazardous” asteroid will be zooming past on Friday, 12 August.
The giant asteroid is expected to come within 4.3 million km of Earth and has an estimated diameter of between 13 and 28 metres. Adding to its size, the asteroid, dubbed 2015FF, will also be speeding past earth at 33 012 km/hour, as per HT Tech.
While you may be scratching your head and wondering “what the big deal is,” especially since it’s only 4.3 million kilometres away, it’s important to note that NASA defines any space object that comes within 193 million km of Earth as a “near-Earth object” and any fast-moving object within 7.5 million km as “potentially hazardous.”
Thankfully, there’s no imminent danger as NASA estimates trajectories of all the near-Earth objects beyond the end of the century.
Even more amazing is the fact that a number of space agencies are doing their part to create technology that will help deflect asteroids set to fly straight at Earth.
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