NASA reports that a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid will come close to Earth today; Find out its size
Asteroids, which are ancient space rocks, typically orbit in space but occasionally pose a threat by approaching planets like Earth. This occurs when their path is influenced by the gravitational pull of a larger planet, potentially leading to a collision. To mitigate these risks, NASA and other space agencies employ sophisticated telescopes to closely track asteroids and reduce uncertainties surrounding their near encounters. Today, on February 14, NASA has provided information about an asteroid that is anticipated to pass by Earth at a close distance.
Asteroid 2024 BR4: Details
The asteroid, named Asteroid 2024 BR4 by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), is orbiting Earth at a breathtaking speed of 44,869 kilometers per hour, much faster than an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)!
It is just one of five asteroids predicted to pass by the planet today. NASA expects this space rock to fly past Earth at a distance of about 4.6 million kilometers.
Is it dangerous?
This asteroid is passing by and has been called a potentially hazardous asteroid. Only celestial bodies longer than 492 feet that pass Earth closer than 7.5 million kilometers are defined as such. According to NASA, the asteroid is 570 feet wide, making it almost the size of a building! That’s nearly 10 times the size of the 59-foot asteroid that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, damaging 7,000 buildings and injuring more than 1,000 people.
Asteroid 2024 BR4 belongs to Apollo’s group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are extraterrestrial space rocks with semimajor axes greater 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 BR4 has passed Earth before. It flew past the planet for the first time on February 4, 2009, at a distance of almost 26 million kilometers. NASA says that after today, this asteroid will come close again this year on December 14, passing the planet at a distance of 70 million kilometers.
