A Near Earth Object representational image (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech)NASA’s asteroid monitoring center claimed that an all-new asteroid equal to the size of an airliner Boeing 747 is set to hurtle past the Earth on October 7. The asteroid is named as 2020 RK2 and is expected to cross the Earth’s orbit at a distance of 2,380,800 miles away from the Earth.
The US-based space agency first discovered the asteroid in the month of September and has found its size to be from 118 feet to 265 feet wide. The heavenly body is slated to rush past the Earth at quite a slower pace of 6.68 km per second. In addition, astronomers have also predicted that 2020 RK2 is highly unlikely to be visible to astronomy enthusiasts and sky-observers due to its slow speed.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reportedly said that the Asteroid will be coming from Andromeda constellation which is 10.3 billion light years away. Along with that, the asteroid is classified into category of Apollo asteroid.
It was only on September 24th, that an asteroid zoom past the Earth at a distance of 13,000 miles and another one is soon expected to whizz past our planet at a distance of 6.2 million km, on October 6th, just a day before 2020 RK2 will glance towards the Earth’s orbit. This new asteroid is named as 2020 RR2 and is having a diameter of 26 meters.
NASA scientists also advised the public not to panic as this gigantic asteroid will only enter the Earth’s orbit but will not collide with the planet. According to the estimation, it will hurl towards the Earth at around 1.12 pm ET (10.42 pm IST).
These asteroids are mostly found between Mars and Jupiter and often come inside the planet’s orbit due to their attractive gravitational force. As per NASA other planet’s gravity may pull these celestial bodies towards themselves while making them hurl the distance in vast space and avoiding their collision with the planets.
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