An asteroid is headed straight for Earth and it’s huge! NASA has revealed its speed and close approach distance with Earth.
Amid many smaller asteroids that have passed close to Earth in recent months, NASA has issued a warning that a colossal asteroid is headed dangerously towards our planet. This asteroid, named Asteroid 2019 XS, is colossal in size. Could the asteroid impact the planet and cause catastrophic destruction? Or will he just miss the planet by enough distance? This is what NASA has to say.
Key details about asteroid 2019 XS
Asteroid 2019 XS is already on its way to Earth traveling at an astonishing speed of 42,727 kilometers per hour and will barely miss the planet tomorrow, November 10. It will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers, according to NASA. . NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that asteroid 2019 XS is colossal in size, ranging from 147 feet to 328 feet, even larger than an Airbus A380, the world’s largest commercial airliner!
According to the-sky.org, asteroid 2019 XS was discovered on April 4, 2000. It belongs to the main group of Apollo asteroids, which are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the huge Apollo asteroid of 1862, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.
Asteroid 2019 XS takes just 368 days to orbit the Sun, during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 199 million kilometers and minimum distance is 101 million kilometers.
did you know
NASA has a mission to study the Sun’s increasing solar activity. NASA’s SunRISE mission, which stands for Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment, is an upcoming mission to launch in 2024 to study and determine how explosions originate in the Sun. giants of energetic particles and evolve as they expand out into space.
The mission will observe low radio frequency emissions to better understand the generation of solar storms, as well as other explosive space events. This research will help scientists forecast space weather, improve our understanding of how our Sun works, and can be applied to studies of other stars.