130-foot asteroid to come scarily close to Earth TODAY, says NASA; Should you worry?
Did you know, dinosaurs were in the prime of their lives during the late Cretaceous period when an asteroid drove them into extinction, says a latest study. This dinosaur-killing asteroid was between 10.6 and 80.9 km in diameter and it crashed in Chicxulub, near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico around 65 million years ago. Think about it, if a giant asteroid can end the era of dinosaurs, then what will happen if a massive asteroid hits our planet now? Scary! Right? Hence, to detect the terror of these monster rocks, NASA and other agencies keep an active eye on these rocks and inform in advance.
Five such potentially hazardous asteroids are rushing toward Earth today. The largest of them all is said to have a diameter of 130-foot, which is equal to an airplane. It is called 2021 NF, which will make the closest approach with a distance of 4.27 million miles, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) mentioned. This airplane-sized asteroid is moving at a speed of 40776 kilometers per hour (11.33km/sec), CNEOS data revealed. Will it strike Earth? Should you worry? Know what NASA says.
NASA's JPL has given the tag of potentially hazardous objects to all the space rocks that approach within 4.6 million miles of Earth and have a size larger than about 150 meters. This is what makes this asteroid a potential threat to Earth.
NASA keeps a constant eye on the movements of the asteroids to ensure any kind of threat is quickly found.
Do you know that asteroids are also called planetoids? These rocky rubble revolving around the sun are too small to be called planets, hence, these can be known as planetoids or minor planets too.
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