Hundreds of meters ‘potentially dangerous’ asteroid expected in May by NASA

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Apollo rocks are considered to be the most dangerous space “intruders,” causing NASA’s tracking system to closely monitor their movements.

An asteroid nearly 500 meters in diameter is currently flying toward our planet, and will be particularly close on May 7, reveals the NASA Center for the Study of Near-Earth Objects (CNEOS).

The space rock is called 2009 XO, or 438908, and, according to the agency’s estimates, after judging how it reflects light, it may end up having a diameter of no more than 210 meters.

2009 XO is designated as a “potentially dangerous” object by NASA, as it belongs to the Apollo class of asteroids, which means that its orbit intersects the orbit of our planet. The asteroid will move at a speed of 12.7 kilometers per second in early May 7.

It is not expected to approach more than approximately 3,394 kilometers from our planet, but the US space agency still considers it “close” and “potentially” dangerous.

The rock orbits the Sun every 926 days, but it only gets closer at a distance of 127.5 million km.

Apollo asteroids generally spend most of their lives outside our planet’s orbit, unlike Aten asteroids, and some of them are carefully monitored by NASA due to their “potentially dangerous” status, and also due to damage. significant regional that can cause in case of collision.