630-foot asteroid careening towards Earth TOMORROW at horrifying 61200 kmph, says NASA

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Space is full of several near-Earth objects (NEOs) like asteroids and comets. These objects can be dangerous for Earth, if they are large in size and hit the planet. However, scientists and researchers do keep any eye on these asteroids and comets and track their movement in order to know whether they are on a collision course to planet Earth. As per the latest update shared by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an asteroid named 2022 UC22 is moving at a high speed and will reach Earth tomorrow, Monday, November 7. Is the asteroid dangerous? Here is all you need to know.

The asteroid 2022 UC22 is gigantic at 192 metres or 630 feet (size of a building), and is travelling at a whopping speed of 17.38 kilometres per second or 61200 kmph. Fortunately, according to NASA, the asteroid will fly past our planet and there is no risk or danger to be worried about at the moment. According to JPL, the asteroid's closest Earth approach will be as close as just 4,350,000 miles.

Not every asteroid coming towards Earth is dangerous. However, it also does not decrease the risk of an asteroid striking the planet or causing some other harm. Therefore, scientists and researchers keep an eye on every object that is heading towards Earth and study it in order to know if it can collide with the planet or pass harmlessly by after buzzing the planet at close quarters.

Surveys done by NASA-supported ground-based telescopes – including Pans-STARRS1 in Maui, Hawaii, as well as the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona – have identified thousands of near-Earth objects. And a space-based telescope called NEOWISE has identified hundreds of others while scanning the skies at near-infrared wavelengths of light from its polar orbit around Earth.