Three enormous asteroids, up to 100 feet wide, are set to skim past Earth this weekend, NASA has warned.
According to scientists, the largest of the three asteroids, 2018VR1 is up to 100 feet wide, as long as a blue whale.
NASA explains that the three asteroids are set to make close approaches with Earth by Sunday.
Three enormous asteroids will skim past Earth warns NASA. Image Credit: geralt / Pixabay
Despite the fact they will pass relatively close to Earth, they won’t be visible to the naked eye, and you will need a satellite to see them.
Of the three, the asteroid dubbed as 2018VS1 is expected to pass Earth first, according to calculations from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
2018VS1 will miss Earth by 1,386,771 km, successfully passing us at 2:03pm GMT (9:03am ET) on Saturday, November 10.
The Asteroid is believed to measure between 40 to 90 feet across. According to NASA it won’t collide against Earth.
Sixteen minutes after, at 2:19pm GMT, (9:19am ET), the largest of the three space rocks, 2018 VR1, will fly past Earth.
The calculated trajectory suggests the space rock will pass withing 5 million km from Earth, a reassuring distance given the size of the asteroid.
The third and final flyby this weekend will see asteroid VX1 pass by Earth at a distance of 381,474 km, which is closer to us than the moon. VX1 will skim past Earth at around 6:21pm GMT (13:21 ET) on Saturday.
And despite the fact that some of these asteroids are going to come really close to Earth, NASA has classified their trajectories as close approaches.
NASA’s center for Near Earth Object Studies explains that “As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects 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.”
No comments:
Post a Comment