U.S. The space agency is warning of salvos of space rocks heading to Earth, ranging in size from 10 millimeters in diameter to positively distressing 213 all the way.
While not keeping an eye on its Perseverance rover touching Mars this week, NASA is busy monitoring the sky for potential threats to life on Earth – namely asteroids. And this week is no exception, because five such space rocks are due to the humming of the planet we call home.
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On Sunday, the 10-meter asteroid 2021 DD1 and the 61-meter asteroid 2021 DK1 will be shooting at Earth at a safe distance of 1.6 million kilometers and six million kilometers, respectively.
However, they are just a warm-up act for what NASA has described “Stadium size” Asteroid 2020 XU6, with a diameter of about 213 meters. To put it in perspective, it is twice as tall as London’s Big Ben and twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
The 2020 XU6 is traveling at a speed of 8.4 kilometers per second or 30,240 kilometers per hour. Given the Earth’s circumference of 40,075 kilometers, it would take asteroids a short time to complete the entire planet’s length.
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Mercifully, however, when space rock flies on February 22, about four million kilometers come to an end, so that humanity can take a collective sigh of relief for now.
Soon after the 2020 BV9 (23 m) a huge space rock will follow, passing at a distance of 5.6 million kilometers and 2021 CC5 (40 meters), passing about 6.9 million kilometers.
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