Building-sized asteroid racing towards Earth, warns NASA; check speed and close approach

tech.hindustantimes.com:

In the past decade, there have been several close calls with asteroids. While none of them have caused enough damage to wipe out life on Earth, they have impacted the surface and given us a stern indication of their destructive potential. In 2013, a mere 59 feet wide space rock, which is no bigger than a small house, was observed rushing towards Chelyabinsk in Russia at a speed of 65000 kilometers per hour and exploded over the city. While its impact was non-fatal, it still injured as many as 1400 people and damaged over 7000 buildings.

Due to such close calls, NASA, ESA, and other space agencies have developed technology to track asteroids in their orbits, and even deflect them in case a potential impact scenario develops. With this advanced tech, NASA has now revealed details about an asteroid that will come close to Earth today.

Asteroid 2023 QG4

An asteroid, given the designation of Asteroid 2023 QG4, is on its way towards Earth and could make its closest approach to the planet today, August 25. NASA revealed these shocking details after tracking the asteroid's orbit using its various satellites and space and ground-based telescopes. As per the details, Asteroid 2023 QG4 is expected to make its closest approach to the planet at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers, and at a staggering speed of 86530 kilometers per hour, which is even faster than NASA's Voyager 1 probe that was launched in 1977 to study the outer solar system and interstellar space.

This space rock belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth's. These asteroids are named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

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