NASA, the United States space agency has revealed that an asteroid measuring 2,700 feet in diameter will zip past the earth on November 29, 2020.
The asteroid named 153201 2000 WO107 will have its closest approach at 05.09 AM EST, and during the time of its close flyby, this space rock will be 2,673,409 miles away from the earth.
Asteroid close approach: Should we worry?
Even though 2,673,409 miles is quite a large number in human terms, it is a very short distance in astronomical terms. Even though this asteroid will not hit the earth, NASA experts have classified it as a near-earth object (NEO).
According to NASA, all space bodies that come within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) can be considered a near-earth object. As asteroid WO107 is passing within 0.02876 Astronomical Units from the earth, it is also a potentially hazardous space rock.
Threat from space continues
It was around 66 million years ago that a giant space rock hit the earth and resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. Apart from dinosaurs, several other species were also wiped out from the earth's surface following this mass extinction event.
Even though such an event has never happened on the earth since then, several space experts believe that asteroid hits are not confined to the past, and it will happen in the future too. Popular American physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson had also suggested that a possible apocalyptic scenario on planet earth could be triggered due to an asteroid hit.
A few days back, a study report had suggested that asteroid Apophis, also known as the God of Chaos asteroid is speeding towards the earth due to the Yarkovsky effect. After recalculating the possibility of an impact, scientists revealed that this rogue space body could hit planet earth in 2068. This asteroid has a diameter of more than 340 meters, and a potential collision could result in the death of millions of people.
