NASA WARNING: Truck-size asteroid to come 'extraordinarily CLOSE' to Earth, closer than satellites
NASA is one of the closest an asteroid has ever come near Earth.
An asteroid the size of a truck will come dangerously close to Earth on Thursday night, NASA warned. It will be one of the closest encounters ever recorded with such a big rock.
The asteroid will come as close as 2200 miles above the southern tip of South America, 10 times closer than communication satellites.
Davide Farnocchia, an engineer at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, told AP that a very few observations were made about the asteroid but it will make an extraordinarily close approach with Earth. The size of the asteroid is around 28 feet across.
It is one of the closest an asteroid has ever come near Earth.
The asteroid was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov. It takes 359 days to orbit the sun but after coming in contact with Earth, its gravity will be altered and it will orbit every 425 days.
The asteroid, however, will not hit earth. Even if it tries to enter earth, most of it will be burned down by its atmosphere.
NASA says there is no chance of it hitting the planet.