Asteroid will fly very close to Earth this Saturday: NASA
- 4 years ago
WASHINGTON — NASA warned that asteroid 2002 PZ39 will approach Earth on Saturday.
This asteroid is moving at a speed of nearly 55,000 km per hour relative to Earth and has a diameter of between 440 meters to 990 meters.
According to NASA, should a rocky asteroid bigger than 25 meters but smaller than 1 km were to hit Earth, the meteorite would likely cause local damage to the impact area.
A meteorite larger than one or two kilometers in size would be capable of worldwide effects.
Business Insider reports that most asteroids occupy orbits between Jupiter and Mars, so they pose little danger to the Earth.
The outlet adds that 2002 PZ39 is one of the rare exceptions.
NASA considers this asteroid a near Earth object and estimates that it will miss earth by a margin of 15.2 lunar distances — or 5.8 million km — at 11:00 pm on February 15.
This asteroid is moving at a speed of nearly 55,000 km per hour relative to Earth and has a diameter of between 440 meters to 990 meters.
According to NASA, should a rocky asteroid bigger than 25 meters but smaller than 1 km were to hit Earth, the meteorite would likely cause local damage to the impact area.
A meteorite larger than one or two kilometers in size would be capable of worldwide effects.
Business Insider reports that most asteroids occupy orbits between Jupiter and Mars, so they pose little danger to the Earth.
The outlet adds that 2002 PZ39 is one of the rare exceptions.
NASA considers this asteroid a near Earth object and estimates that it will miss earth by a margin of 15.2 lunar distances — or 5.8 million km — at 11:00 pm on February 15.