A massive asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building in the USA will pass close to Earth on May 27, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). In addition, this asteroid is twice the size of Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Fortunately, for now, it doesn’t seem like we have anything to worry about. The asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) will pass within about 4 million kilometers of our planet, about 10 times the average distance between Earth and the moon. Still, given the enormous size of the space rock (about 1.8 km in diameter) and its relatively close proximity to Earth, NASA has classified the asteroid as “potentially dangerous.” So, if its orbit changes and the rock hits the Earth, it could do great damage to our planet.
NASA says 7335 (1989 JA) will be the largest asteroid to come close to Earth this year. Scientists estimate that the asteroid is moving at about 76,000 km/h, or 20 times faster than the speed of a bullet. The asteroid will not make another visit until June 23, 2055, approaching a distance of about 70 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
This asteroid is one of more than 29,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) that NASA tracks each year. According to NASA’s definition, NEOs refer to any space object that passes within approximately 48 million km of Earth’s orbit. In addition, many of these objects are extremely small. The agency says 7335 (1989 JA) is larger than about 99% of the NEOs NASA tracks.
Also fits into a class of asteroids, 7335 (1989 JA), referred to as the Apollo class, which refers to asteroids orbiting the Sun as they periodically pass Earth’s orbit, Live Science previously reported. Astronomers know of about 15,000 such asteroids.
NASA has been watching NEOs like this closely and recently launched a mission to test whether potentially dangerous asteroids could one day be deflected from collision course with Earth. In November 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will crash into the 160-metre-wide asteroid Dimorphos in the fall of 2022.
This collision will not destroy the asteroid, but it may slightly change the rock’s orbital path.
12135
