144 feet NEO will come extremely close to Earth Sunday

NASA is currently monitoring a huge asteroid that is expected to come dangerously close to Earth on Sunday. According to the agency's Center for Near-Earth Objects (CNEOS), the asteroid could approach the planet at a distance of only one lunar.

Dubbed as 2016 NO56 asteroid, the near-Earth object was first observed on July 6, 2016. During this time, it approached the planet at a distance of only 0.00488 astronomical units approximately 454,000 miles.

The data collected on the asteroid revealed that it had a speed of 27,000 km / hour and a diameter of 144 feet, which makes it almost as large as the Chicago Water Tower.

For its next visit, CNEOS estimated that the 2016 NO56 will fly by Earth on July 7 at 10:12. Once it approaches Earth, it will probably be at about 0.0087 astronomical units or 815 000 miles from the center of the planet. This equates to less than four times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Although the asteroid flies at a relatively safe distance, NASA believes that it is possible that it can approach the Earth at a much closer distance.

According to data collected by CNEOS, it is possible that 2016 NO56 approaches the Earth over a lunar distance of only one, which equates to 0.00258 astronomical unit or about 240 000 miles. At this distance, the asteroid will be almost as far as the Moon is at Earth.

As explained in previous studies, the trajectory of asteroids can be affected by various spatial factors, such as gravitational keyholes. It is certain regions of space that are affected by the gravitational attraction of a nearby large object like a planet.

In the case of 2016 NO56, its trajectory may have changed due to its previous approaches. Before his next visit to Earth, he flew over the Moon and Venus in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

The gravitational attraction of these cosmic bodies most likely changed the course of the asteroid and pushed it into a path close to Earth. Similarly, NASA believes that the asteroid could approach the Earth at a much closer distance because of its gravitational appeal.

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs millions of years ago has also caused a tsunami around the world. Pictured: Illustrated mosaic of the asteroid Eros, with the northeast light, taken by the NEAR Shoemaker robotic space probe on March 3, 2000 at a distance of 204 km or 127 km. After a year of circles and shots, NEAR will land on the asteroid Eros on February 12, 2001 to capture the details of the surface. This will be the first time that a craft will attempt to land on a rock in free fall. Photo: Getty Images / NASA / Newsmakers