Right now, NASA scientists are keeping tabs on a hefty asteroid that’s coming closer to Earth each and every day. The space agency even has a fancy asteroid watch section on its website showing the next "five approaches," which are all happening in a matter of days.
That's right, there are at least five asteroids heading towards Earth.
The biggest asteroid is a whopper, though. It's estimated to be 1,100 feet wide, approximately the size of a football stadium. That one, which is named 2002 NN4, will be closest to Earth on June 6.
Although, NASA scientists aren't expecting there to be a deathly and most obstructive collision on Earth. The closest it's going to get is 3,160,000 miles from Earth. That may sound like it's pretty far away, but in space, everything appears to be closer.
For example, 3,160,000 miles is about 13 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.
To put it more in perspective, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft along with a team at the University of Arizona took some pretty incredible photos while visiting the Asteroid Bennu.
They snapped a photo that was taken 3,000,000 miles away. Taking a look at the photo because it gives you a better idea of how far, yet sort of close, the football stadium-sized asteroid will be on Saturday, June 6.
Imagine this being the first-person view of the asteroid.
So, put the phone down. There's no need to call Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck for assistance because the asteroid isn't going to smash into Earth and burn us all alive.
Do you remember how they saved the world in the successful 90s film Armageddon?
Never mind... What I'm trying to get across is that 3,000,000 miles doesn't appear to be too far away when you're floating in space.
Additionally, there are three other asteroids the size of an airplane and one the size of a house, but they aren't going to hit the Earth either — according to the scientists closely watching them. The closest one already passed by our planet within 1,830,000 miles.
You can learn more about these floating rocks on NASA’s asteroid watch page.
Commentaires