An asteroid bigger than Gujarat's Statue of Unity is headed towards Earth this week.
An asteroid bigger than the Statue of Unity is headed towards Earth this week. The asteroid is about 210 meters in size, bigger than the tallest statue, the Statue of Unity situated in Gujarat.
Scientists are calling the asteroid, Dubbed 2005 RX3 and it will come close to Earth on September 18. The asteroid is approaching the Earth at a speed of 62,820 kilometers per hour. The object will come as close as 47,42,252 kilometers to the planet, which is relatively close when seen on the cosmic scale of the universe.
While 2005 RX3 will flyby by Earth on September 18, four others are also on a close approach to the planet as Nasa continue to track their orbital movements.
The four asteroids headed toward Earth this week include:
- 2020 PT4: The asteroid will come as close as 71,89,673 kilometers to Earth at a speed of 39,024 kilometers per hour.
- 2022 QD1: The asteroid is nearly 130 meters in size and is expected to hurtle past Earth at a fiery speed of 34,200 kilometers per hour on September 16.
- 2022 QB37: The asteroid will approach Earth on September 18 and will come as close as 65,16,483 kilometers to the planet.
- 2022 QJ50: The asteroid will be on a course towards Earth by the end of this week and will pass by at a speed of 33,156 kilometers per hour.
Asteroids are rocky fragments left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. An asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object when its distance from our planet is less than 1.3 times the distance from Earth to the Sun (the Earth-Sun distance is about 93 million miles), according to the Nasa Joint Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
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