Update: The Catalina Sky Survey responded to queries from IBT India and provided the following response on a what the meteor is exactly. Gregory Leonard, Catalina Sky Survey, Department of Planetary Sciences- University of Arizona had this to say about the meteor-
"I can report that indeed, one of my colleagues here at the Catalina Sky Survey discovered asteroid 2018 GL1 (a Minor Planet Center designation) on April 9, 2018. The asteroid is currently estimated to be somewhere in the range of 51 to 110 meters (about 165 to 360 feet) across and will pass
close, though harmlessly by Earth on May 18, 2018, at a distance of about 5,470,000 km (3,400,000 miles), or about 14 times the Earth-to-moon distance. Far from Earth, yes, but still relatively close from a cosmic perspective.
Asteroid 2018 GL1 is an Amor type asteroid, meaning that its orbit lies entirely outside of Earth's orbit, though at times the orbits of the asteroid and Earth bring them into close proximity. Amor type asteroids (like their 'cousins' the Apollo and Aten family asteroids) are considered near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). While there are currently nearly 18,000 known NEAs, none of them are currently determined to be on a collision trajectory with Earth in the next couple hundred years. However, all NEAs are of high interest for continued monitoring, and in many thousands or millions of years, gravitational and other forces may bring some them into harm's way. Additionally, NASA-funded projects like ours, the Catalina Sky Survey exist to discover and track new NEAs whose orbits require determination. We are now discovering close to 1000 new NEAs each year at our project alone; there are an additional 1,000 NEAs discovered annually by other projects. So there's a lot of new asteroid 'traffic' that requires discovery and tracking!"
Hours before the upcoming royal wedding on May 19, a massive, football field-sized meteor might fly by Earth, according to emerging reports from multiple sources. The asteroid called JPL 8 is expected to pass near Earth but is not going to land on the planet, so it has been deemed harmless.
Several reports point out to it being tracked by NASA, including a report by the Sun. However, NASA has yet to release a statement or even confirm the identity of this mysterious object reported to be hurtling towards Earth. A report by the Inquistr mentions that the asteroid will pass by Earth on May 18, at 2:21 am, a few hours before the ceremony. The asteroid is travelling towards Earth at a speed of around 16 km per second, the report.
JPL 8 is also estimated to be between 49 and 110 meters across and is not seen as a threat to not only the ceremony but also the rest of Earth in general. The Sun reports that the Near Earth Object (NEO) is a lot larger than the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. The report even mentions that this one, the JPL 8, was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) – a collaboration between NASA and the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory– this year. They say it is an Apollo-class asteroid, meaning, its path actually crosses the Earth's, but its orbit is larger.
Having said that, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, (CNEOS) there is one asteroid called the 2018 GL1 that is set to fly by Earth on 18 May. It is travelling at a speed of around 5.2 km per second and it has an estimated diameter of between 51 meters- 110 meters.
NASA updates information related to asteroids in its Asteroid Watch Twitter.
