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NASA has said that an asteroid will pass close to Earth next week without colliding with it, according to CNN.
The asteroid, which is estimated to be approximately 1.2 miles wide, appears in the agency photos as if wearing a face mask like the one used to prevent the coronavirus.
It’s called asteroid 52768, also called “1988 or R2”, and it was discovered by tracking near-Earth objects on July 24, 1998.
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“Small topographic features, such as the hills that appear at one end of the asteroid, make it look like it has a snout in its face,” Ann Ferrici, head of planetary radar at the Arecibo Observatory, said in a statement.
The asteroid will pass April 29, at 3,908,791 miles from Earth, at a speed of 19,461 miles per hour, and this is still 16 times farther from the distance from Earth to the Moon, according to the agency.
The agency emphasized that it will not collide with Earth, since if it collides with our planet it can have great impacts.
It is expected to happen at 5:56 am EST, according to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.
The asteroid was classified as a potentially dangerous object because its diameter is greater than 500 feet and it is 5 million miles from Earth’s orbit.
Experts in Arecibo can monitor asteroids and use observations to determine their future path to see if they pose a threat to Earth.
