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An Asteroid 3 Times Big Blue Whale Passes Earth Today

KOMPAS.com – An asteroid three times the size of a blue whale will glide or pass near Earth today, June 6, 2022.

Reporting from Live Science, (2/6/2022), NASA reports that the asteroid 2021 GT2 will pass at a speed of more than 16,000 mph or 26,000 km / hour.

This asteroid will pass near Earth today within a distance of more than 2.2 million miles or 3.5 million kilometers. This distance is equivalent to about 10 times the average distance between the Earth and the moon.

Read also: Giant Asteroid Passes Earth Today, Is It Seen from Indonesia?

The asteroid, which was only discovered by astronomers in 2021, is estimated to have a size between 37 and 83 meters, which is almost the size of 1-3 blue whales.

As is known, that the blue whale (Balaenoptera Musculus) is the largest mammal and animal in the world that can still be found today.

The blue whale is the largest marine mammal in the world, with one tail measuring up to 33 meters and weighing up to 181 tons.

Asteroid 2021 GT2 is an Aten-class asteroid, which means it orbits the sun closer than Earth once every 342 days.

More than 1,800 asteroids in that category are actually a lot of which are classified as potentially dangerous asteroids.

However, even though it belongs to the Aten class and has a size three times as large as a blue whale, astronomers say asteroid 2021 GT2 it is still not large enough to be considered a potentially dangerous asteroid for Earth.

After today, June 6, 2022, the asteroid 2021 GT2 will also still pass or pass near Earth in the future, namely January 26, 2034.

At that time, this asteroid will pass within 9 million miles or 14.5 million kilometers from planet Earth.

This means that the trajectory of the asteroid 2021 GT2, which will pass near Earth on January 26, 2034, will be further than its trajectory today.

Read also: An asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building hurls toward Earth on May 27, 2022

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