Scientists have revealed a “potentially dangerous” asteroid approaching Earth tomorrow.
The space rock, called FF2015, is between 13 and 28 meters in diameter – roughly the same diameter as an adult blue whale, according to The Independent.
The asteroid is traveling towards Earth at 20,512 miles per hour, and will come close to about eight times the distance between our planet and the Moon – 4.3 million kilometers in space.
The US space agency (NASA) defines any object within 193 million kilometers of Earth as a “near-Earth object”, while anything within 7.5 million kilometers is classified as “potentially hazardous.”
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An unexpected impact from another asteroid could easily push rocks toward Earth.
The planet has a lot of early warning systems to prepare humans for collision. In March, the European Space Agency’s Planetary Defense Society spotted an asteroid hours before it hit Earth.
NASA is also preparing a spacecraft that could stop a potentially life-threatening collision. Earlier this year, a DART – or double asteroid redirection test – was launched to Didymos, 6.7 million miles from Earth.
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The mission will push the asteroid out of its orbit only slightly, even at 15,000 miles per hour — but that’s all that might be needed to keep it off course, if scientists can spot potentially dangerous asteroids early enough.
However, if they are unable to spot these asteroids, the results could be devastating. A week-long exercise led by NASA concluded that a catastrophe could not be avoided if a massive asteroid headed for Earth, even if it took six months to prepare.
“If we faced the scenario in real life, we would not be able to launch any spacecraft at such short notice with current capabilities,” the participants said. The only response to such an event would be to evacuate the area before the asteroid impact.
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