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Washington, Aug 30 (IANS): An asteroid with diameters between 22 and 49 meters will pass through Earth on Tuesday, NASA said.
At its closest approach, the asteroid will be 1.2 lakh km away. It means that the asteroid will be closer to Earth than the Moon, which is 3.84 lakh km from our home planet.
Dismissing a possible threat, the US space agency said the space rock will not hit Earth.
“Will the #asteroid 2011 ES4 hit Earth? No! The close approach of ES4 2011 is ‘close’ on an astronomical scale, but does not pose any danger of hitting Earth,” NASA Asteroid Watch posted on Saturday. Twitter
“#PlanetaryDefense experts expect it to pass safely at least 45,000 miles (792,000 soccer fields) away on Tuesday, September 1,” he added.
NASA estimates the relative speed of the asteroid to be around 8.16 km per second, Xinhua reported.
The last time asteroid 2011 ES4 flew by Earth, it was visible from the ground for four days.
This time, it will be closer to our planet than before.
The asteroid, listed as “potentially dangerous”, was first discovered in the spring of 2011 and passes Earth every nine years.
A “potentially dangerous asteroid” is currently defined on the basis of parameters that measure the potential of the asteroid to make near-Earth threats, according to NASA.
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