Pyramid-Sized Asteroid Safely Hurled Towards Earth; Space Rock Was Removed From Potentially Hazardous Object List

After just being spotted in April, an asteroid that might be larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza made a near pass to Earth later this month.

Newsweek, citing NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), said the space rock, named 2022 GU6, passed within 750,000 miles of our planet on June 12 at roughly 8:01 a.m. ET.

Although 2022 GU6 did not crash with our planet this time, it was a pretty close approach for a near-Earth object (NEO). The asteroid passed by at a distance of around three times the average between the Earth and the moon.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the flyby came extremely close on a cosmic scale, passing within 1.2 million kilometers of Earth. On a cosmic scale, it is more than three times as far as the Moon, which circles the Earth at a distance of around 384,000 km.

Asteroid 2022 GU6 Removed From Potentially Hazardous Object List

Initially thought to be a menace earlier this year, astronomers' subsequent observation and monitoring confirmed that 2022 GU6 posed no harm to Earth.

When an asteroid leaves the asteroid belt and approaches Earth, it can be dangerous. Near-Earth Asteroids are objects to be aware of but are rarely dangerous.

Dr. Melissa Brucker of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory verifies to Inverse that there is no chance of an impact.

"2022 GU6 was removed from JPL's list of possible impactors on April 26, 2022, after the previously predicted potential impact became inconsistent with orbit recalculations due to the addition of new observations," she told Inverse.

Fortunately, the said asteroid only passed by once in a lifetime. In May 2015, forecasts predicted that 2022 GU6 would arrive within 0.08 AU.

Asteroids are sometimes unnoticed until much later. In this century, the closest approach of GU6 to Earth was on June 12.

Earth Isn't Ready to Protect Itself From Space Rocks Or Near-Earth Asteroid?

NASA is looking into several defense options, The US Sun said.

It just launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

"DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's motion in space through kinetic impact," NASA said.

In September, the DART spacecraft will collide with Dimorphos, a tiny asteroid that will be thrown off track.

However, some people believe the Earth is not yet prepared to protect itself against potentially devastating asteroids.

"A big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk previously tweeted, causing anxiety.

About Asteroid Collisions

NASA said that the Earth is safe from a devastating asteroid collision for the next century. Minor collisions, on the other hand, are still possible. In fact, one did in March when the asteroid 2022 EB5 collided with the Earth.

However, Jerusalem Post said minor asteroids could still cause harm. It was the situation with a previous asteroid impact in 2013, when a tiny one measuring 17-20 meters in diameter collided with the Earth and exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia. While the hit was not very strong, the shockwave caused thousands of windows to break, injuring numerous individuals and necessitating medical treatment.

Asteroids are one of the most common forms of objects in the solar system. Space Guard Center, citing NASA, estimated that about 1,113,000 of them. However, they are only the ones that have been formally recognized, with specialists constantly discovering more.

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.