Highlights
- NASA has warned that a giant asteroid will pass very close to Earth on Wednesday
- The name of this asteroid is 2017 AE3 and it is coming at a speed of 75 thousand kmph.
- This asteroid is 353 meters wide and it is expected to come close to 19 lakh miles of Earth.
The US space agency NASA has warned that a giant asteroid will pass very close to Earth on Wednesday. NASA scientists are keeping an eye on this asteroid. Scientists have named this asteroid 2017 AE3 and it is coming towards Earth’s orbit at a speed of 75 thousand km per hour. This asteroid is 353 meters wide and it is expected to come close to 19 lakh miles of Earth.
According to the report of The Sun, this asteroid is three times bigger than the Statue of Liberty in America. This asteroid may be passing through a distance of 19 lakh miles, but scientists believe that it is a very short distance. He said that if this asteroid changes its course and collides with the earth, then there will be devastation here. It is believed that Asteroid 2017 AE3 will pass near the Earth without creating any danger.
Two asteroids have passed close to Earth
Only two asteroids have come very close in Earth’s history. An asteroid 2020 QG, which passed just 1,830 miles over the southern Indian Ocean. It was so small that it did not threaten the Earth. The second asteroid was 2020 VT4, which passed a few hundred miles from Earth in November last year. Although these asteroids are too small to harm the Earth. Scientists are preparing to deal with the threat of a big asteroid.
What are asteroids after all?
Asteroids are rocks that revolve around the Sun like a planet, but they are much smaller than planets in size. Most of the asteroids in our solar system are found in the asteroid belt in the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. Apart from this, they keep moving in the orbit of other planets and revolve around the sun along with the planet. About 4.5 billion years ago, when our Solar System was formed, such clouds of gas and dust that could not take the shape of a planet and were left behind, were transformed into these rocks i.e. asteroids. This is the reason that their shape is also not round like the planets. No two asteroids are alike.
There are 22 such asteroids that are likely to hit the Earth
NASA has placed it in the category of dangerous asteroid. This asteroid is the third of 5 to come in recent times. It is estimated that this asteroid could be the size of the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai. These days, NASA is keeping an eye on two thousand asteroids which can become a threat to the Earth. If a high-speed space object is likely to come closer than 46.5 million miles from Earth, then space organizations consider it dangerous. NASA’s Sentry system already monitors such threats. In this, for the coming 100 years, there are currently 22 such asteroids which have the slightest chance of hitting the Earth.
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