Terrifying asteroid to come as close as 78500 km to Earth today
Asteroids often make close trips to Earth but pass the planet at just enough distance to not cause any harm. Astonishingly, astronomers have spotted three near-Earth asteroids (NEA) hiding in the glare of the Sun. One of the asteroids is the largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years. This is a notoriously challenging region for observations because asteroid hunters have to contend with the glare of the Sun. NASA has also warned that one potentially hazardous asteroid is on its way towards Earth today, and it will pass by extremely closely! Here's what the space agency said.
NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that the asteroid, named Asteroid 2022 WM7, will make its closest approach to Earth today, November 28, at a distance of just 78500 kilometers! For reference, the Moon is nearly 320,000 kilometers away from Earth.
That means this asteroid will pass Earth at a distance that is even closer than the Moon! It will be one of the closest asteroid approaches we've had all year. In fact, the asteroid is already travelling towards Earth, at a blistering speed of 41686 kilometers per hour.
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.
In the midst of all the close asteroid flybys, NASA has now revealed that an asteroid struck the Earth just days ago! NASA keeps a watch on these asteroids by studying data collected by various space and ground-based telescopes and observatories such as the Pan-STARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey and the NEOWISE telescope. However, this asteroid was seemingly missed by all of them
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