Asteroid Flyby This May: Space Rock Larger Than Empire State Building Will Pass Near Earth on Sunday

NASA is currently tracking an asteroid that is headed towards our planet. The space rock, according to the reports, has a size that is slightly larger than the towering Empire State Building in New York.

Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) Flyby

AUSTRALIA-JAPAN-SPACE-ASTEROID-HAYABUSA — The Range Operations centre of the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) Woomera Range Complex is seen in Woomera in South Australia on December 4, 2020, ahead of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa 2 probe's expected sample drop to earth on December 6 after landing on and gathering material from an asteroid some 300 million kilometres from Earth. MORGAN SETTE/AFP via Getty Images

The US space agency matched earlier predictions with the rock's current trajectory. Experts said that the object, also known as the Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3), is set to pass near Earth's premises on Sunday, May 15.

The update said that the asteroid scales to 1,608 feet or 490 meters in width. The size of the rock is actually larger compared to New York's Empire State Building, which stands with a height of 1,454 feet or more than 440 meters. Thankfully, there is no confirmation that the 2008 TZ3 asteroid will slam or even scratch our planet.

Hypothetically, the size of this incoming rock is more than enough to damage Earth-sized bodies. Because of the danger it poses, NASA specialists categorized the asteroid under the group of 'potentially hazardous rocks.

Asteroid bigger than Empire State Building heading towards Earth https://t.co/MxKOl7JzDc pic.twitter.com/yIShP3lHGp
— New York Post (@nypost) May 12, 2022

Like many that took near-Earth flybys before it, the Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) is expected to pass through the Earth's neighborhood without any harm. Despite the fact that the rock will be passing by near us, the closest distance it can only get is a stretch of 3.5 million miles or 5.6 kilometers from our planet.

According to a report by Marca, NASA said that the Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) is currently traveling through the cosmos with a speed of 18,000 miles per hour or almost 29,000 kilometers per hour.

On Sunday, the space rock is expected to perform its nearest flyby to Earth at approximately 5:15 PM Eastern Time. In the UK, the object could be detected at around 9:18 PM British Standard Time.

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Second Space Rock Visitor of Earth This May

When 2022 began, numerous studies confirmed the upcoming flyby of a separate space rock known as the 2009 JF1 asteroid. First discovered in 2009, the rock was predicted to pass through our planet on May 6 this year.

Initially, experts thought that the rock would actually hit our world on that date, but further computations of its trajectory showed the contrary, with Earth being safe from any contact with the asteroid.

The odds reduced as the series of research were carried out for the rock's displacement. Eventually, the 2009 JF1 simply passed by with a distance of 28 million miles or about 45 million kilometers away from our home.

This separate cosmic object has a structure that is significantly smaller compared to the 2008 TZ3, measuring only 32 feet or 10 meters in diameter. However, its size, combined with its 23.92 kilometers per second speed, is sufficient to take a large piece of our planet out of its place.

Instances like the asteroid flybys pushed scientists to create solutions that could potentially maneuver the rocks off of their course. One such promising technique is NASA's anti-asteroid defense spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART. The instrument's capabilities will be demonstrated soon once it reaches its target called 65803 Didymos.