The space agency first discovered the asteroid in 2013.
A “potentially hazardous” asteroid, roughly the length of the London Eye, is set to fly past Earth on Wednesday, according to a report. Independent,
NASA is tracking the activity of a giant rock called 2013 WV44, which is 160 meters in diameter. The US space agency’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies said the asteroid will pass within 3.3 million kilometers of Earth, which is very close for celestial bodies but poses no threat to Earth.
The space agency first discovered the asteroid in 2013 and a team of astronomers said it traveled at 11.8 km per second, about 34 times the speed of sound.
According to The Independent, the asteroid will come closest to Earth on June 28 at 9 am (1.30 pm IST).
Last month, NASA warned about a bus-sized asteroid that was expected to make its closest approach to Earth.
According to NASA’s Asteroid Watch page, the 39-foot bus-sized asteroid 2023 JL1 will fly past Earth at a distance of 2,490,000 km. It is traveling at a speed of 26,316 kmph.
Specifically, NASA’s dashboard tracks asteroids and comets that will come relatively close to Earth. The dashboard displays the date of closest approach, estimated object diameter, relative size and distance from Earth for each encounter. It tracks asteroids that are within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth.
About 30,000 asteroids of all sizes – including more than 850 more than a kilometer wide – have been cataloged around Earth, earning them the label of “Near Earth Objects” (NEOs). None of these pose any threat to the earth for the next 100 years.
According to NASA, asteroids are left over from the formation of our solar system. Our solar system began about 4.6 billion years ago when a huge cloud of gas and dust collapsed. When this happened, most of the material fell into the center of the cloud and the Sun was formed. Some of the dust condensed in the clouds to become planets.