A huge asteroid crosses Earth’s orbit at the beginning of the new year

Reports indicate that an asteroid estimated to be larger than the “Empire State”, the famous skyscraper in New York, will fly into Earth’s orbit in the new year.

NASA is tracking asteroid 2003 AF23, which is expected to rapidly blast into Earth orbit on Sunday, January 3, 2021, making it the first space giant rock to approach our planet in the new year.

NASA has classified the asteroid as one of the Aton asteroids, a space rock that follows a very wide orbit around the sun. The asteroid’s height is believed to be 390 meters, which is taller than the Empire State Building in New York, which penetrates the sky at a height of 381 meters.

Aton asteroids are known as a group of near-Earth asteroids, which were named after the first asteroid of its kind discovered, 2062 Aton.

Scientists do not think that the asteroid will collide with the Earth, but they will observe it if it enters the atmosphere of our planet by chance.

The asteroid 2003 AF23 is expected to pass Earth at 8.20 am GMT next Sunday.

It is estimated to travel at 15.2 kilometers per second, or 33,500 miles per hour.

The asteroid will approach Earth at a distance of 18.9 lunar or 0.03425 astronomical units from the sun, which is approximately 5.1 million kilometers (3.2 million miles) from our planet.

Despite its distance from Earth, NASA considers that a space object is a near-Earth object, as any asteroid would be classified as such if it approaches the Earth within 1.3 astronomical units.

Once the asteroid safely past Earth, we can then expect it to visit our planet in 2025, according to NASA estimates.

Astronomers are currently tracking nearly 2,000 asteroids, comets and other objects that pose a potential threat to Earth.

According to NASA, the NEO is a term used to describe “comets and asteroids that have been pushed by the gravity of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter Earth’s neighborhood.”

Earth has not seen an asteroid of terrible scale since the space rock that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Source: Daily Star

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