NASA has revealed that a potentially hazardous asteroid, larger than the Giza Pyramid, is hurtling towards earth at a breathtaking speed of 64,800 kilometres per hour. This enormous asteroid, dubbed 2019 OU1, will zip past Earth on August 28. During the time of its close flyby, the rogue space body will be just one million kilometres away from us.
The asteroid is 164 meters in diameter and its size is almost equivalent to the Washington monument. As per NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the space rock will come 40 times closer to Earth than Venus, our nearest neighbouring planet.
NASA believes that any space rock that passes at a distance of 7.5 million kilometres from the Earth is potentially hazardous. It should be noted that even a slight change in the trajectory of this asteroid could turn out to be very dangerous. If an impact occurs, it will trigger disaster in the affected area.
A few days back, another asteroid which was larger than the Empire State building zipped past the Earth. Experts believe that such threats from deep space could be addressed with prime importance, as a hit may cause catastrophic effects, sometimes at a global level.
Dr Iain McDonald, a scientist at the Cardiff University's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences had warned that the Earth will be hit by a doomsday asteroid one day or the other. As per McDonald, dreaded asteroid hits have happened in the past and the possibilities of such events in the future could not be ruled out.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, a popular American physicist, also shares similar views and believes that the end of the world will most likely happen because of an asteroid hit. The physicist made these remarks while talking in a podcast titled, 'Cosmic Queries: Asteroids and Comets'.
