Massive Asteroid 2020 ND will zoom past Earth: Why is it ‘potentially dangerous’?

New Delhi, July 24: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has warned against a huge "Asteroid 2020 ND" that will zoom past Earth on July 24. The asteroid, is approximately 170 metres long, and will be as close as 0.034 astronomical units (5,086,328 kilometres) to the Earth. Its distance from Earth has placed it in the "potentially dangerous" category.

The asteroid is travelling at a massive speed of 48,000 kmph. However, the asteroid is in all likelihood to be safely away from Earth, the NASA stated.

NASA warns as huge asteroid to move past Earth today

Why it is Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)?

"Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid's potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less are considered PHAs," according to NASA.

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits which allows them to enter the Earth's neighbourhood. They are composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, and occasionally approach close to the Earth as they orbit the Sun.

Even so, it is not necessary that asteroids classified as PHAs will impact the Earth. "It only means there is a possibility for such a threat. By monitoring these PHAs and updating their orbits as new observations become available, we can better predict the close-approach statistics and thus their Earth-impact threat," NASA says.