NASA Monitoring Giant Asteroid on Course to Pass Near Earth Today

In recent years, scientific research has provided new insights into dinosaurs and their extinction. The Alvarez hypothesis suggests that a massive asteroid collision occurred approximately 65 million years ago, resulting in the extinction of various dinosaur species. This theory is supported by evidence, including the discovery of the Chicxulub crater beneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. According to the hypothesis, the asteroid impact would have generated enormous tidal waves and a crater measuring around 140 km in diameter. Debris from the impact would have been ejected into space, causing significant environmental changes resembling a nuclear winter. Ultimately, this catastrophic event led to the extinction of dinosaurs and numerous other species.

Although such incidents are rare, dangerous asteroids, both small and large, visit Earth and sometimes pose a threat. Now, NASA’s Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which is responsible for monitoring the skies and monitoring various Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), has issued a warning about an asteroid that will pass close to Earth today.

Asteroid 2023 PH1

NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has named this space rock asteroid 2023 PH1. The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth today, August 16, at a distance of only 2 million kilometers. Shockingly, it is already hurtling towards Earth in orbit, traveling at a speed of about 21538 kilometers per hour, just shy of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)!

Asteroid 2023 PH1 belongs to the group of Aten asteroids, which are near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) with semi-major axes smaller than Earth’s. They are named after the asteroid 2062 Ate, and the first of their kind was discovered by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at the Palomar Observatory on January 7, 1976. These asteroids have an orbital period of less than a year and spend most of their time hidden by asteroids. Sun.

NASA has also revealed details about the size of the asteroid. It’s nowhere near big enough to cause potential damage, and certainly not big enough to be known as a planet killer. Thus, it is safe to say that asteroid 2023 PH1 is not expected to collide with Earth. At nearly 31 feet wide, the asteroid is about the size of a bus.