NASA's asteroid trackers have warned that two gigantic asteroids will zip past earth on November 20, 2018. The first asteroid dubbed, Asteroid 2018 VQ6 will have its close approach at around 07.29 AM GMT, while the second space body, Asteroid VP7 will make its close flyby at 07.49 AM.
Initial analysis conducted by scientists at NASA reveal that VQ6 will measure somewhere between 12 meters to 35 meters in diameter. On the other hand, Asteroid VP7 is estimated to measure somewhere between 12 meters to 28 meters in diameter.
Experts believe that the first asteroids will reach its closest possible distance to Earth at around 0.02931 astronomical units (AU) and the second cosmic body will have its close approach at 0.01961 AU. It should be noted that one astronomical unit equals about 92.95 million miles, and it is actually the distance between the earth and the sun.
As these space bodies are making its close approach at around 2.72 million miles away, experts have classified these asteroids as 'Near Earth Object' (NEO). Even though a distance like 2.72 million miles is very gigantic in human terms, it is very close in astronomical terms.
"As they orbit the Sun, NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth. Note that a "close" passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometers," NASA says.
As per NASA, any space bodies like asteroid or comet on an orbital path around the Sun of around 1.3 AU or 120.8 million miles can be considered a Near Earth Object.
A few days back, Dr Iain McDonald, a scientist at Cardiff University's school of earth and ocean sciences revealed that earth will be inevitably hit by a gigantic space rock one day or the other. The scientist made these remarks while talking on the BBC's Today programme. During the talk, McDonald claimed that devastating events including asteroid hits had happened throughout history, and such events will happen in the future too.
In the meantime, a section of conspiracy theorists has started claiming that the arrival of these asteroids could be an indication of Nibiru's collision course. As per these conspiracy theorists, Nibiru alias Planet X is a rogue ninth planet that is lurking at the edge of our solar system. These people believe that Nibiru will one day hit the earth resulting in an apocalypse.
