A "potentially hazardous" asteroid that is almost as large as the world's tallest building has just been found by NASA. This Halloween, a giant asteroid may fly near Earth.
The diameter of the asteroid, called 2022 RM4, is estimated to measure between 1,083 and 2,428 feet (330 and 740 meters), just shy of the height of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 2,716 ft (828 m).
According to NASA, it will pass our planet at nearly 68 times the speed of sound, or around 52,500 mph (84,500 km/h).
Near-Earth Object Seen Flying Towards Earth This Halloween
The asteroid's closest approach to Earth on November 1 will be at a distance of around 1.43 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) or about six times the average distance between Earth and the moon.
Space.com pointed out that this is a small margin by cosmic standards.
NASA classifies as a "near-Earth object" any space object that approaches Earth within 120,000,000 miles (193,000,000 km). It classifies as "potentially hazardous." any huge body approaching Earth within 4.65,000,000 miles (7.5,000,000 km).
Once these potential threats have been alerted, astronomers keep a close eye on them, using radar to seek for any signs that their predicted trajectories have changed, which might put them on a lethal collision path with Earth.
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a system of four telescopes that can examine the whole night sky every 24 hours, is used by NASA to track over 28,000 asteroids and estimate their locations and orbits.
Since being online in 2017, ATLAS has found more than 700 near-Earth asteroids and 66 comets. Two of the asteroids found by ATLAS, 2019 MO and 2018 LA, did in fact reach Earth; the former erupted off the coast of Puerto Rico, and the latter crashed-landed not far from the border between Botswana and South Africa.
These hits didn't, however, result in any damage.
The asteroid also won't hit Earth, according to USA Today. NASA calculated the near-Earth object trajectories for the next 100 years and found that there is no known threat to the planet from an end-of-the-world asteroid impact.
According to NASA, comets and asteroids that are less than 1.3 AU (120.9 million miles) from Earth are considered near-Earth objects. According to NASA, an asteroid is deemed potentially dangerous if it approaches the planet within 4.65 million miles and has a diameter greater than 500 feet.
ALSO READ : Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Will Flyby Earth on Halloween at Roughly 68 Times the Speed of Sound
About 2022 RM4
According to Forbes, astronomers at Haleakala's Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii discovered the 2022 RM4 on September 12. It is categorized as a near-Earth object, an Apollo-type object, and a potentially dangerous asteroid by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
These asteroids are those whose orbits around the sun are wider than Earth's and whose trajectories overlap Earth's. Every 1,397 days, 2022 RM4 completes an orbit around the sun; on occasion, this orbital path intersects that of Earth.
The asteroid will become near enough and big enough for scientists to use telescopes to take pictures of it.
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