110-foot asteroid heading for Earth today! Check its terrifying speed, distance
Did you know that planet-killing asteroids come along only once every few million years? As these space rocks revolve around the Sun in their elliptical orbits, the asteroids also rotate, sometimes quite erratically, tumbling as they go, according to NASA. Colossal asteroids have been responsible for some of the biggest events in history. From the Chelyabinsk disaster that claimed many lives to the meteor which caused the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago, whenever meteors have crashed on Earth, they have impacted lives.
Although a planet-killing space rock is not expected to make a trip to Earth anytime soon, NASA has warned that an asteroid is on its way today and the US space agency is keeping an eye on it.
Asteroid 2022 UP2 is already on its way towards Earth travelling at a staggering speed of 21549 kilometers per hour and is expected to just miss the planet today, November 14. It will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 4 million kilometers, according to NASA. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that Asteroid 2022 UP2 is colossal in size with a width of nearly 110 feet, which is about as big as a commercial aircraft!
According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 UP2 was discovered on September 25. It belongs to the main Apollo group of asteroids, which are a group of Near-Earth asteroids named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.
According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 UP2 takes just 692 days to orbit the Sun during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 313 million kilometers and minimum distance is 146 million kilometers.
NASA keeps a watch on these asteroids by studying data collected by various
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