Giant asteroid WON’T hit Earth on Wednesday – but here are 22 space rocks Nasa thinks might
A GIANT asteroid will be making a ‘close approach’ to Earth this week.
Luckily for us it’s not expected to hit Earth but Nasa does have 22 space rocks that it’s keeping an eye on.
Any fast moving space object that comes within around 4.65 million miles is considered to be “potentially hazardous” by cautious space organisations.
Nasa also keeps a “Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring” list that summarises “potential future Earth impact events”.
This table currently contains 22 space rocks that Nasa thinks have a small chance of actually hitting us.
The space agency explained: “Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continually scans the most current asteroid catalog for possibilities of future impact with Earth over the next 100 years.
“Whenever a potential impact is detected it will be analyzed and the results immediately published here, except in unusual cases where we seek independent confirmation.”
However, the largest asteroid on the list isn’t actually expected to come into contact with Earth until the year 2880.
The asteroid is called 29075 (1950 DA) and it once had the highest known probability of impacting Earth.
It’s almost three times as big as the Empire State Building so could cause some damage.
Other infamous space rocks called Apophis and Bennu have also made the list.
They are known to astronomers and expected to come perilously close to Earth.
Bennu has a diameter of around 1608 feet.
It’s still unlikely that Bennu would hit Earth but if it did it’s expected to do so sometime between 2175-2199.
Asteroid Apophis could do some damage sooner as the 1214 feet wide asteroid has a small chance of hitting between 2060-2105.
Luckily for us, Apophis should skim past Earth within 19,000 miles of the surface.
There is one asteroid on the list that has a small chance of hitting us between 2020-2025.
This asteroid is called 2018 VP1 but it’s only thought to be around seven feet wide.
Asteroid 2005 ED224 is said to have a chance of hitting between 2023-2064.
This space rock is larger with a diameter of 177 feet.
You can check out Nasa’s full list here.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
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In other space news, Starlink satellites could provide ‘ultra-fast internet’ to the US and Canada later this year.
Nasa astronauts will launch into space from US soil next month for the first time in nearly a decade.
And, Brits took snaps of Starlink satellites passing over the UK last week.
Are you concerned about asteroids? Let us know in the comments…
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