NASA reports that a bus-sized asteroid will narrowly miss Earth today; Find out its speed
NASA has used its sophisticated ground and space telescopes to announce that up to four asteroids are set to pass by Earth closely on March 8. While these asteroids typically orbit the Sun, they can occasionally come near our planet due to interactions with the gravitational fields of larger celestial bodies. Monitoring these asteroids is crucial to reduce uncertainties surrounding their close encounters.
Asteroid 2024 EJ2: Details
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has named the asteroid Asteroid 2024 EJ2. It orbits at a speed of about 53,289 kilometers per hour, which is even faster than Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)! According to the US space agency, this asteroid will come as close as 558,000 kilometers from Earth today, March 8.
Although this asteroid is passing close by, it is not large enough to cause panic or potential damage. According to NASA, the asteroid is 61 feet wide, making it almost the size of a house! However, if it hits the ground, it can still cause some damage. In 2013, a smaller 59-foot asteroid exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, damaging 7,000 buildings and injuring more than 1,000 people. This asteroid is almost three times the size of the Chelyabinsk asteroid!
Asteroid 2024 EJ2 belongs to Apollo’s group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are extraterrestrial space rocks with semimajor axes larger than the Earth’s axis. These asteroids are named after the huge 1862 Apollo asteroid discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.
NASA has also revealed that asteroid 2024 EJ2 has not passed by Earth before and this is its first close approach. After today, this Apollo group asteroid is not expected to pass by the planet anytime in the near future.
