An asteroid nearly the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is expected to whizz past Earth during the early hours of August 18, which is the day after. The asteroid, named Asteroid 2022 PC is 190 foot wide, which is nearly the wingspan of the humongous aeroplane Boeing 747, one of the largest aircrafts in the world. The asteroid will whizz past Earth at a distance of merely 3.9 million miles.
An asteroid is a small, rocky object and when seen in a telescope, it appears as a point of light, according to NASA. Most asteroids are found in a ring between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter called the Asteroid Belt. These celestial objects are the remains of the period during which our solar system formed, over 4.6 billion years ago.
These past months have seen a sudden increase in the frequency of asteroid flybys. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office monitors the sky with telescopes and keeps a track of upcoming flybys by Near-Earth objects (NEOs). With the help of advanced telescopes, more than 750,000 asteroids have been discovered to date out of which over 27,000 are near-Earth asteroids. So, unless NASA issues an asteroid warning, the planet is safe from these frequently increasing asteroid approaches.
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