by |
Khaled Younes |
Tuesday 10 May 2022 – 06:00 PM
The planet is awaiting the approach of a huge asteroid larger than the famous “Empire State” building in New York City (consisting of 102 floors) within days, The US space agency, NASA, is making the space rock and has revealed that it will “closely” approach us from the perspective of space. Fortunately, the asteroid will remain more than 3.5 million miles away, so there is no reason to panic.
Astronomers believe that the width of the asteroid ranges between 220 and 490 meters. As tall as possible, this would make it larger than the Empire State Building (a 102-storey skyscraper in New York City), the Shard in London (total height 310 m, 101 floors) and the Eiffel Tower in Paris (313.2 meter).
The space rock, officially known as 388945 (2008 TZ3), is expected to approach its closest point to Earth on Sunday May 15, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this asteroid, as it has passed before without any problem.
The last visit by 2008 TZ3 was in May 2020. In that time, it has approached us at a distance of 1.7 million miles, and the asteroid routinely visits Earth about every two years, orbiting the sun just as we do.
Its crossing this weekend will be the closest to us for the rest of our lives, and it’s due to pass again in May 2024 but much further than that, at a distance of 6.9 million miles.
The next time the 2008 TZ3 will come as close to Earth as it does this weekend, is in May 2163.
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