Asteroid warnings and alerts are issued by space agencies throughout the year, but this time, the size of the asteroid which is flying towards the Earth with tremendous speed is out of the ordinary and can cause serious damage if it makes contact with our planet.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is the official space agency of the United States, has issued an alert regarding 2023 HG1, an asteroid that is estimated to be the size of an apartment in New Delhi.
The asteroid 2023 HG1 is approximately 60 foot tall and is racing towards Earth at a speed of 7200 KMPH (2 kilometers per second). If an asteroid this size hits the Earth, it could lead to major loss of life and even mass extinction of humans and animal species.
While the size of the asteroid is big and its speed is tremendous, NASA has made it clear that the massive space rock poses no threat to planet Earth, and will whizz past us on May 9 at a safe distance of 4.16 million kilometers.
Asteroid 2023 HG1 is a part of the Apollo group of near-Earth objects, which mostly includes massive asteroids and rocks floating around in space. The asteroid orbits the Sun every 402 days, reaching a maximum distance of 173 million kilometers and approaching as close as 145 million kilometers.
To put in perspective about how far away the asteroid will be when it zooms past the Earth, the complete distance will be over 4 million kilometers, which is over 10 times the distance between the Earth and the moon, maintaining a safe distance from us.
Another asteroid from the same group, asteroid 2023 HT6, is expected to zoom past the Earth soon at a safe distance as well, being over 7.5 million kilometers away from our planet.
READ | NASA warns of massive potentially hazardous 1000-foot asteroid approaching Earth today
