NASA Alerts of Impending Close Encounter with Asteroid – 190-ft Space Rock on Course for Earth

NASA has disclosed that an asteroid named Asteroid 2020 UQ3 is currently heading towards Earth and may reach its closest proximity to our planet as early as tomorrow, July 18. The space agency has been monitoring the asteroid’s path using a combination of satellites, telescopes, and ground-based observatories. According to NASA, Asteroid 2020 UQ3 is projected to come within a distance of only 1.2 million kilometers from Earth, traveling at a velocity of 33,387 kilometers per hour.

It belongs to Apollo’s group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-passing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth’s. These asteroids are named after the huge 1862 Apollo asteroid discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

Is Asteroid 2020 UQ3 Dangerous?

According to NASA, the near-Earth asteroid is not expected to collide and is not large enough to be classified as a potentially hazardous object. An asteroid must be at least 96 kilometers wide to end life on Earth. Asteroid 2020 UQ3, on the other hand, is nearly 190 feet wide, which is not big enough to cause a catastrophe.

However, it can be compared to an airplane and can still cause some damage, especially if it were to fall in a densely populated area.

History of Asteroid Collisions

While large asteroids like the one that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago are known as planet killers, several smaller space rocks have also caused loss of life and property. In 2013, an asteroid just 59 feet wide exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, damaging 8,000 buildings and injuring more than 1,000 people.

On the other hand, the largest asteroid impact on Earth in history occurred on June 30, 1908, when a carbonaceous asteroid hit Earth in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia. After impact, it destroyed about 2,150 square kilometers of forest and scorched the earth, resulting in a 12-megaton explosion.

A recent meteor strike

Just yesterday a woman sitting on her terrace in a village in Alsace in eastern France was hit by a meteor that bounced off the roof and hit her in the chest! He later had the rock examined by a geologist named Dr. Thierry Rebmann, who confirmed that it was indeed a meteorite from space.