NASA said two more asteroids will pass by Earth this month. A large asteroid as big as the Empire State Building in New York City will pass with Earth on Feb. 18. The other, which is the size of a football field, will whiz on the planet on Feb. 22.
A mosaic image of asteroid Eros at its north pole, taken by the robotic NEAR Shoemaker space probe February 14, 2000 immediately after the spacecraft's insertion into orbit.
Feb. 18: Asteroid 2022 BH7
NASA said per The Jerusalem Post that an asteroid with a diameter of over 1,250 feet is expected to pass safely by Earth this Friday, Feb. 18.
The space rock known as 2022 BH7 will fly by our planet this Friday at a speed of more than 50,000 miles per hour.
It will approach Earth at about 4:45 p.m. ET, when it will be around 1.4 million miles away-roughly six times the distance between the moon and Earth.
Asteroid 2022 BH7 is believed to be between 170 and 380 meters across. The Empire State Building, for example, is almost the same size as the asteroid's most excellent estimate.
According to NASA estimates, the big space rock is unlikely to harm Earth, which show it will pass by at a safe distance of roughly 2.9 million kilometers on Friday.
The Moon, by contrast, circles the Earth at a distance of roughly 384,000 kilometers, or less than a sixth of that distance.
But it's a good thing this asteroid won't hit us since the consequences may be disastrous.
Feb. 22: Asteroid (455176) 1999 VF22
Meanwhile, asteroid (455176) 1999 VF22 will pass by Earth at 2:54 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Because it approaches our planet and is rather huge, the object is classed as "possibly dangerous." Yet, the flyby next week is totally safe.
IFL Science said the space rock will not approach the Earth any closer than 5,366,000 kilometers (3,334,000 miles), which is over 14 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
According to NASA's Small-Body Database, the object has an absolute magnitude of 20.7. Still, it's impossible to assess its exact size without an albedo - the proportion of reflected light by the surface.
Space Reference said Asteroid 1999 VF22 is likely between 0.193 and 0.431 kilometers in diameter, making it a tiny to average asteroid, around the size of a football field.
It will be the closest approach of this space rock to our planet in almost a century. To get this asteroid closer to our planet than next week's contact, one would have to wait until 2150 - which happens to be roughly the same time as next week's encounter, Feb. 23.
Its last closest approach occurred on Oct. 31, 1999. Despite its size and proximity to Earth, the Catalina Sky Survey did not locate it until days later, on Nov. 10.
NASA's Planetary Defense System Vs. Asteroids
There are currently no unified and comprehensive defensive systems against asteroids, particularly those of a planet-killing magnitude.
However, defensive methods and continuing test measures are being developed to handle the potential threat of an asteroid colliding with humankind.
According to NASA's JPL, one of these examples is NASA's ongoing involvement in the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and the recently developed next-generation asteroid impact monitoring system.
The DART project, led by NASA, attempts to divert an oncoming asteroid from hitting Earth in the future.
In our solar system, there are many asteroids, but NASA emphasizes the near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). As of December 2021, around 28,000 NEAs have been discovered.
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