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The asteroid, christened by NASA's 2019 JN2 asteroid, is en route to fly over the Earth on a "close approach to Earth" trajectory. NASA predicts that the asteroid will pass near our home planet in the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 15th. As close as possible, the space rock will approach Earth around 3:15 am (2:15 am UTC). When this happens, the asteroid will reach terrifying speeds of about 6.77 km per second or 24,372 km / h.
The JN2 asteroid is an asteroid called "near-Earth object" or NEO.
NEOs are all comets and asteroids that gravitate around the Sun at a maximum distance of 194.5 million km.
These rocky objects roam the inner circles of the solar system without exceeding the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
NEOs such as the JN2 asteroid sometimes cut the Sun's own Earth orbit.
READ MORE: Find out how often asteroids hit Earth
We sometimes know that these flybys that bite the nails are as close, if not closer than the moon.
But is there anything to fear from flying over the asteroid JN2 of tomorrow?
Fortunately, you can rest easy tonight because NASA's asteroid trackers at the California Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) do not expect a cataclysmic impact to occur.
The asteroid JN2 approaching the Earth at a distance of 0.01809 astronomical unit.
READ MORE: NASA unveils its formidable mission of asteroid redirection
An astronomical unit describes the average distance between the Earth and the Sun – about 149 million kilometers.
This means that the JN2 asteroid will pass over our head tonight at a distance of 2.7 million kilometers from the Earth.
In other words, the space the rock will fly beyond 7.04 lunar distances (LD) or slightly more than seven times the distance of the moon.
NASA stated: "When they gravitate around the Sun, objects close to the Earth can sometimes approach the Earth.
READ MORE: Watch the main asteroid DESTROY Earth in violent accident simulation
"Note that a" near "passage astronomically can be very far in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometers."
The JN2 asteroid is an Apollo-type asteroid, which means that it has an orbit similar to that of the 1862 Apollo asteroid.
Spatial rock measures a diameter between 20 and 44 m (65.6 ft).
After tomorrow's flyby, the asteroid will visit Earth again on the morning of April 18, 2020.
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