NASA has issued a warning about a gigantic asteroid approaching Earth on July 24. Here’s everything you need to know. By Kumar Shree
NASA has stated that asteroid 2020 ND will whizz past our planet on July 24 (Friday) while two other asteroids namely 2016 DY30 and 2020 ME3 will zoom past Earth on July 26 (Sunday).
As mentioned by NASA, asteroid 2020 ND, which is about 170 metre-long will pass from a distance of 0.034 astronomical units from Earth. The distance comes out to be 5,086,328 kilometres from our planet. While the distance seems great on paper, it falls under the category of ‘potentially dangerous’. And mind you, this asteroid is travelling at a speed of 48,000 kilometres per hour!
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As reported by The Indian Express, NASA, in a statement has said, “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less are considered PHAs.”
Of the other two asteroids, 2016 DY30 is heading towards earth at 54,000 kilometres per hour, and 2020 ME3 is travelling at a speed of 16,000 kilometres per hour. 2016 DY30 will pass at about 0.02306 astronomical units from Earth. The distance translates to about 3.4 million kilometres. While 2016 DY30 has been classified as an Apollo asteroid as it crosses the earth’s path while tracing its path around the sun.
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The closest point of 2020 ME3 from Earth will be about 0.03791 astronomical units. The distance in kilometres comes out to be 5.6 million. This asteroid has been categorised as an Amor asteroid as it does not cross the earth’s path, and only flies close on several occasions.
Since these two are smaller asteroids they don’t pose a threat to our planet.
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