The asteroid, known as 2011, measures 49 meters (160 feet) and has been considered “potentially dangerous” by NASA. The space rock will pass very close on September 1 at a distance of 71,805 km, just a fifth of the distance between us and the Moon (384,399 km), according to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) of the POT. The asteroid will approach the Earth at an amazing speed of 29,375 km / h, although it will pass our planet safely.
Even in the extremely slim chance that it would hit Earth, at 49 meters it would not pose a significant threat, causing an explosion similar to the Chelyabinsk incident.
In 2013, a 20-meter meteorite exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, breaking windows and injuring more than 1,000 people.
But despite its small size, NASA has described the upcoming space rock as a “potentially dangerous asteroid.”
The space agency said: “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening approaches to Earth.
“Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less are considered PHAs.”
It is also a near-Earth object (NEO), which gives NASA the perfect opportunity to study the history of the solar system.
NASA stated on its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) website: “NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been pushed by the gravitational pull of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter Earth’s neighborhood.
“The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is largely due to their condition as relatively unchanged remnants of the process of forming the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.
READ MORE:
NASA is currently studying the asteroid Bennu, where its OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft arrived last year.
Part of the reason NASA is sending the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft is to gather more information about the space rock that is 500 meters long.
NASA fears that the asteroid, which has the potential to destroy a country on Earth, may hit our planet in the next 120 years, with the next close flyby in 2135.
