NASA asteroid tracker: 20,000MPH asteroid found barrelling for Earth approach TODAY
A COLOSSAL asteroid hurtling through space at nearly 20,000mph will approach the Earth incredibly close today, NASA’s asteroid trackers have revealed.
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The asteroid, dubbed by NASA Asteroid 2019 CG5, is expected to make a so-called “Earth Close Approach” tonight. NASA’s asteroid trackers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California have narrowed the flyby down to around 6.35pm GMT (UTC). As it shoots by, the asteroid will reach breakneck speeds of 19,953.5mph or 32,112kph. This means Asteroid CG5 is covering more than 29,200ft of distance every single second.
Thankfully, there is nothing to worry about because even at its closest approach, the asteroid will miss Earth by more than one million miles (2.28 million km).
Asteroid CG5 is a so-called “Near-Earth Object” (NEO), meaning its orbital trajectory at times cuts dangerously close into the orbit of Earth.
As NEOs dash around through space, they often approach the Earth but rarely do they strike the planet.
NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth.
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“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth
According to the JPL, Asteroid CG5 measures somewhere in the range of 36ft to 78.7ft (11m to 24m) in diameter.
By all standards, CG5 seems a pretty non-threatening space rock but similarly sized asteroids are known to have caused considerable damage in the past.
And tonight’s flyby comes one day after the anniversary of the 2013 Chelyabinsk Meteor incident.
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Six years ago a small 65.6ft-wide (20m) asteroid entered the atmosphere undetected, from the direction for the Sun, and erupted over Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia.
The asteroid’s sudden appearance and explosion blew out windows in a wide radius, injuring more than 1,000 people and damaging more than 7,000 buildings.
TV scientist and CEO of the Planetary Society Bill Nye said: “It’s the anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteorite impact, which was no joke. Low probability – very high consequence.”
Tonight, however, all indicators suggest Asteroid CG5 will safely pass the Earth without swerving into our home world.
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At its closest, NASA estimates CG5 will near-miss the planet from a distance of about 0.01524 astronomical units (au).
One astronomical unit is the equivalent of nearly 93 million miles (149.6 million km) or the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Asteroid CG5 will drastically cut this down today to just 1.416 million miles (2.279 million km) from Earth.
This is equal to about 5.93-times the distance from the Earth to the Moon – 5.93 Lunar Distances (LD).
After the asteroid leave’s Earth’s corner of space, it will pay another visit on the afternoon of June 8, 2066.