Asteroid 388945 will pass us about 2.5 million miles away.
Space scientists have warned that a giant asteroid is heading towards Earth. According to the US space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), which is to superviseThe giant space rock asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) will approach our planet on May 16 at 2.48 am.
NASA further said that the asteroid is 1,608 feet wide. In comparison, New York’s iconic Empire State Building stands at 1,454 feet. It is bigger than the Eiffel Tower and dwarfs even the Statue of Liberty.
If a space rock hits the Earth, it can cause huge damage. But the calculations of space scientists say that it will pass us at a distance of about 2.5 million miles.
Although this may seem like a great distance, it is not so in terms of space. And that’s why, NASA has marked it as a “close approach.”
This is not the first time that asteroid 388945 has met us. It passed very close to Earth in May 2020 – at a distance of 1.7 million miles.
This space rock regularly passes by Earth — every two years, according to space scientists — while orbiting the Sun.
The next time it will pass close to Earth in May 2024 but even further – 6.9 million miles.
This time again in May 2163, the asteroid will come as close.
If an asteroid comes within 4.65 million miles and exceeds a certain size, it is considered “potentially dangerous” by alert space agencies.
Asteroids are space debris, the remnants of a planet, that roam the vast, infinite space. Scientists have warned for decades that some giant space rocks are dangerous to Earth.
Therefore, many space agencies including NASA are preparing a plan to protect the Earth from these potentially dangerous asteroids. As a part of this plan, NASA recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
Its purpose is to deflect an asteroid headed toward Earth from its path “through kinetic impact”. This means that the dart craft will hit the asteroid with the aim of getting it out of the way.