An asteroid the size of Egypt's pyramids and the Empire State Building will fly by Earth soon. It is one of the series of giant asteroids that will pass relatively near our home planet next month.
According to NASA, near-Earth objects (NEOs) are "comets and asteroids that have been pushed into orbits that allow them to reach the Earth's neighborhood by the gravitational attraction of surrounding planets."
NEOs that originate in the frigid outer planetary system are often water ice with embedded dust particles. Still, asteroids that form in the warmer inner solar system "between Mars and Jupiter" are typically firmer. Scientists think NEOs carry knowledge about the origin of our cosmos since they were produced from relatively undisturbed debris from when the solar system began 4.6 billion years ago.
NASA Tracks Series of Asteroids Whizzing by Earth
CBS News (via Yahoo! News) said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tracked an asteroid that passed close to Earth. It is approximately the same size as Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza, with a diameter of 525 feet.
NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies data said an asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza came close to Earth last Friday, October 15, at a distance of roughly 3.5 million miles.
Apart from the asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as Asteroid 2021 SM3, another large Near-Earth Object will pass by in the coming weeks.
Unilad said an asteroid the size of the iconic Empire State Building would fly past the planet Earth on November 13, which is just a few weeks away.
Asteroid 2004 UE is the name given to the impending NEO, which is estimated to be 1,246 feet in diameter.
Asteroid 1996 VB3, slated to pass by Earth on Wednesday, October 20, is another nearby sighting. It has a diameter of about 690 feet, which is almost half the size of the Empire State Building.
Furthermore, on October 25, a 600-foot-wide asteroid known as 2017 SJ20 is scheduled to pass by our planet.
NASA Says Asteroids Pose No Threat
According to the NASA center focusing on NEOs, people are concerned about the many large asteroids that NASA is looking at.
Slash Gear said NASA has only monitored four asteroids in orbit that reached our atmosphere in the last two decades of tracking near-Earth asteroids.
In some cases, scientists could correctly estimate where the meteorite would strike, allowing teams to go out and retrieve them.
Indeed, "the hazard to any one individual from vehicle accidents, sickness, other natural disasters, and a range of other problems is far larger than the threat from NEOs," according to the agency.
Nonetheless, the space agency stated that there is still a tiny chance that these NEOs may collide with the Earth's surface.
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