NASA said a giant asteroid was hurtling toward Earth and would “pass near us” on Sunday.
The space rock, called 388945 (2008 TZ3), which is larger than the Empire State Building in New York at about 440 meters high, is about 490 meters wide and is considered a “potentially dangerous asteroid” because of its expected close passes.
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For comparison, researchers estimate that the meteor thought to have caused the Tunguska event in eastern Siberia in 1908, which completely flattened forests, could have been about 100 to 200 meters in diameter, while the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs could have been about 10 to 15 kilometers wide.
Space experts say 388945 (2008 TZ3) has a diameter of about 0.219 to 0.490 km.
If an asteroid of this size hits Earth, it could cause devastating damage, but scientists at NASA estimate that the asteroid will pass just “near us” about 4 million km away from the planet on Sunday.
By comparison, the distance between the Earth and the Moon is around 385 thousand km.
This isn’t the first time this asteroid has passed close to Earth. The giant space rock in question passed the planet in May 2020 at a distance of about 2.75 million km. It is not expected to get this close to Earth until May 2163.
The asteroid, which completes its orbit around the sun in 732 days, regularly passes by the Earth. In its orbit, it comes as close as 1 astronomical unit (AU, about 150 million km) to the star and farther away from the star by up to 2.21 AU.
It’s not unusual for such large asteroids to pass near Earth.
According to experts’ calculations, if an asteroid with a diameter of about 100 meters hits the Earth, it could release an explosive force 10 times the intensity of the volcanic eruption in Tonga on January 14.
Any asteroid above a certain size that comes within about 7.5 million km of Earth can be considered “potentially dangerous” based on the path it takes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/space
