NASA Reveals Asteroid Flying Towards Earth at High Speed of 31394 kmph

NASA successfully launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) on September 8, 2016. The mission aimed to study Bennu, a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) with a 1/2700 chance of colliding with Earth in the future. After a 6-year journey, the spacecraft landed on Bennu, collected samples, and recently returned them. The samples underwent a “nitrogen purge” and today, NASA will unveil the asteroid sample to the public in a live-streamed event. You can watch the event online here.

In a separate development, NASA has also discovered a Near-Earth asteroid whose orbit brings it close to Earth today.

Asteroid 2023 TF4: Close approach details

NASA has warned that an asteroid, named Asteroid 2023 TF4, is heading towards Earth and will make its closest approach to the planet today, October 11. Although this space rock will come very close to the planet, it is not expected to affect the surface. This asteroid travels at an amazing speed of 31394 kilometers per hour and passes the Earth at a distance of 2.2 million kilometers.

Amazingly, Asteroid 2023 TF4 is just one of five asteroids to pass close to Earth today!

According to NASA, Asteroid 2023 TF4 is almost the size of a house, measuring 49 feet across! Due to its relatively small size, this asteroid has not been classified as a potentially hazardous object. Only celestial bodies larger than 492 feet in size and passing Earth closer than 7.5 million kilometers are called such.

It belongs to the Apollo asteroid group, a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the 1862 Apollo asteroid discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

Interestingly, NASA has revealed that this asteroid has not come close to Earth in its history and this is its first close approach. It is not expected to pass Earth after today, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.