Several asteroids are moving close to the Earth. One of them is about the size of a building.
NASA Warns About The Next Five Asteroids Coming Close to Earth
NASA released a list of five asteroids coming close to the planet over the weekend.
The asteroids range from 22 feet to 420 feet in size. Check them out below.
2022 YS5
According to NASA, it measures 130 feet and will be closest to Earth on Friday. The airplane-size asteroid will be closest to the planet by 3,700,000 million kilometers.
2014 LJ
This asteroid is among the smallest of the five, measuring 22 feet or about the size of a bus. It will be closest to the Earth on Saturday at 1,130,000 million kilometers.
2022 YH3
Two asteroids will have a flyby over the weekend. Aside from 2014 LJ, 2022 YH3 will be traveling toward the planet. 2022 YH3 is larger than 2014 LJ measuring 290 feet and about a building size. It will reach its closest point to Earth at 4,520,000 million kilometers.
2023 AH
On Sunday, 2023, AH will be flying toward the Earth. It's about the size of a 2014 LJ, as both measures 22 feet and are about the size of a bus. It will be closest to Earth at 440,000 million kilometers. This one will have the closest flyby to the planet among the five.
2012 BV13
The asteroid flying to Earth Monday is the biggest among the five. 2012 BV13 measures 420 feet and is about the size of a big building. It is near twice the size of 2022 YH3. It will be closest to Earth at a distance of 2,890,000 million kilometers.
According to Hindustan Times, NASA previously issued an alert about Asteroid 2012 BV13 due to its monstrous size. NASA said its size ranges between 327 feet and 721 feet, making it nearly as big as a football field.
In 2019, a 721-foot asteroid was detected. According to the agency's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the asteroid is almost as big as the Golden Gate Bridge tower, International Business Times reported.
CNEOS identified it as 2019 UR2, traveling over 30,000 miles per hour. It is officially classified as an Apollo asteroid and has been labeled a near-Earth object.
Asteroid Watch Dashboard
The Asteroid Watch dashboard monitors the asteroids and comets that will pass reasonably close to Earth. For each encounter, the dashboard shows the date of the closest approach, an estimated object diameter, relative size, and distance from Earth.
Hovering over the encounter date reveals the object's name. When you click the encounter date, a website with information about that object will be displayed.
A potentially hazardous object can approach the Earth within 4.6 million miles (or 7.5 million kilometers, or 19.5 times the distance to the moon) and is larger than 150 meters. The dashboard shows the next five Earth approaches within this range.
About 239,000 miles separate Earth and the moon on average (385,000 kilometers).
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