A massive asteroid about the size of New York’s Empire State Building is said to be on a path quite close to Earth.
NASA trackers have clocked the speed of the mass at about 30,000 mph (50,000 kph).
The 450-meter space rock named 2013 BO76, will be traveling 3.1 million miles away which is about 13 times the moon’s distance from Earth, according to NASA data specialists.
Although 3.1 million miles does not seem very close, NASA has deemed it close enough.
According to the space agency, anything that is less than 4.65 million miles is considered hazardously close to earth.
NASA is currently monitoring BO76 on its Asteroid Watch Dashboard.
‘The dashboard displays the next five Earth approaches to within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometres or 19.5 times the distance to the moon); an object larger than about 150 metres that can approach the Earth to within this distance is termed a potentially hazardous object.
‘The average distance between Earth and the moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometres).’
NASA Watch Dashboard
Just last year, NASA reported that we here on earth were safe from another close asteroid that had been reported.
New data confirm Earth is safe from #asteroid Apophis for next 100+ years. Apophis was previously identified as one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids, but new radar observations have ruled that out. Just another day for @NASA #PlanetaryDefense! https://t.co/RMhuLQyHrZ pic.twitter.com/Q5A0RAfFUY
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 26, 2021
The asteroid, Apophis, named after the Egyptian god of chaos, was measured to be about 1,100 feet and rumored to hit the planet earth in the future.
NASA has since ruled this possibility out for another 100 hundred years.
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, Davide Farnocchia had this to say:
‘A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility any more, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.
‘This greatly improved knowledge of its position in 2029 provides more certainty of its future motion, so we can now remove Apophis from the risk list.
‘With the support of recent optical observations and additional radar observations, the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit has collapsed from hundreds of kilometres to just a handful of kilometres when projected to 2029.’
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