Look closely at the night sky with the naked eye for a few nights in a row. What do you see? If you didn’t see any meteors, you’ve been unlucky. Relatively small space rocks enter our atmosphere every day. Most of them are obliterated due to air friction. In other words, the atmosphere works as a protective shield.
But an asteroid about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza isn’t something you hear about every day. According to Live Science, such a space monster is heading towards our cosmic vicinity. The mentioned pyramid initially measured 146.5 meters in height. This made it the world’s tallest structure for over 4,000 years. As for today, the same pyramid lost 9.5 meters from the top. That’s pretty impressive!
The 2008 GO20 asteroid will safely miss us
The asteroid in question is 2008 GO20. If you’ve been counting on it to destroy the world, we’re glad to disappoint you! The space rock will make a close approach with our planet these days. Well, as “close” as it can mean at an astronomical scale! The asteroid will approach us within 2.8 million miles. That still means very far away for our perception!
2008 GO20 doesn’t like to waste any time. It hurtles through space at a staggering speed of 18,000 mph.
There’s no need to worry. Life as we know it will go on long before the asteroid’s flyby. Well, more or less, considering that animals and people die and are born every day anyway across our big blue marvel of a planet.
We’re safe for now, and we’ll all probably read about many more huge asteroids, such as 2008 GO20. But you know what they say that everything must come to an end. A devastating asteroid will visit us one day as the Chicxulub impactor did with the dinosaurs 60 million years ago. The question is: will we be ready for the encounter?