- The space rock, called 2008 OS7, is about 890 feet in diameter
- It will pass our planet at a distance of 1,770,000 miles on Friday afternoon
NASA said a potentially dangerous asteroid the size of a football field is heading towards Earth.
The space rock, called 2008 OS7, is about 890 feet in diameter, slightly smaller than Wembley Stadium's famous arch, which spans 1,033 feet.
It will pass our planet at a distance of 1,770,000 miles at 14:41 GMT on Friday afternoon.
But before you panic, NASA confirms that there is no risk of collision.
“We don't need to worry about it too much because this asteroid will not enter the Earth's atmosphere, while it will still approach Earth,” said Dr. Minjae Kim, a research fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick.
NASA said a potentially dangerous asteroid the size of a football field is heading toward Earth (artist's impression)
NASA describes potentially dangerous asteroids as those larger than about 460 feet (140 meters) and with orbits that bring them as close as Earth's orbit around the sun to a distance of 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers).
“2008 OS7, a very small asteroid whose orbit intersects Earth's orbit, has been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA),” Dr. Kim said.
“There are more than millions of asteroids in our solar system, of which approximately 2,350 asteroids are classified as PHAs.
“The next significant approach to Earth by PHA will be 99942 Apophis on April 14, 2029.”
Asteroid 2008 OS7 completes its orbit around the Sun every 962 days (2.63 Earth years).
“Unfortunately, asteroids are generally too faint to be detected by current techniques and surveys, so they are very difficult to see with the naked eye,” Dr. Kim continued.
“The only asteroids visible to the naked eye so far are Pallas and Vesta, which are about 500 kilometers in diameter.”
Four more asteroids are scheduled to pass near Earth between now and Friday, ranging in size from the size of an airplane to the size of a house.
These will be: 2024 BR3 size 100 feet; 2024BR(63'); 2003 BM03 (120 ft.); and 2024 BJ03 (73 feet).
The space rock, called 2008 OS7, is about 890 feet in diameter, slightly smaller than Wembley Stadium's famous arch, which spans 1,033 feet.
While the chance of this asteroid colliding with Earth is very low, NASA has not ruled out the risk of an asteroid colliding in the near future.
NASA discovers about 30 new near-Earth objects (NEOs) every week, and at the beginning of 2019 it had discovered a total of more than 19,000.
However, the space agency warned that its NEO catalog is not complete, meaning an unexpected impact could occur at “any time.”
“Experts estimate that an impact with an object the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 — about 55 feet (17 meters) — occurs once or twice a century,” NASA explained.
Impacts of larger objects are expected to be less frequent (on the scale of centuries to millennia).
“However, since the NEO catalog is currently incomplete, an unexpected impact – such as the Chelyabinsk event – could occur at any time.”