There’s an enormous asteroid on its way to Earth, and NASA is watching it closely. Asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) is expected to approach Earth on May 15th, according to NASA.
Up to 1,608 feet in width is expected for the massive space rock. The Empire State Building in New York City is 1,454 feet tall. It would be catastrophic if an asteroid of this magnitude struck Earth.
The asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) will pass us by at a distance of around 3.5 million miles, therefore there’s no need to be alarmed. That may seem like a long way away, but in the broad scope of things, it’s not that distant. That is why NASA continues to mark it as a “close approach”. The conservative space organizations deem an asteroid “possibly harmful” if it arrives within 4.65 million miles and is larger than a particular size. This describes Sunday’s asteroid. It should fly by at a speed of little over 18,000 miles per hour from a safe distance. By NASA’s estimate, the asteroid will fly by Earth at around 5:18pm ET and 9:18pm GMT on Sunday, September 18.
Asteroids have passed Earth before, but this isn’t the first time this specific one has done so. About 2.75 million kilometers away, the massive space asteroid will pass Earth in May of 2020. That close to Earth is not predicted until May 2163. Every 732 days, the asteroid comes within roughly 150 million kilometers of Earth, which is about one astronomical unit.
Projects to protect the Earth from other incoming asteroids
The Earth’s defenses against potentially lethal asteroids have some scientists concerned. NASA, on the other hand, is considering a variety of defensive options. Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission was just launched. Deflecting asteroids by altering their trajectory in space by kinetic collision is the primary goal of the DART mission, which is the first of its kind.
