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If you spent your weekend enjoying the last summer sun, you may not be aware of a huge asteroid hissing beyond our planet.
The monster asteroid is almost as big as the tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – and passes near the Earth on Sunday morning.
The 2000 asteroid QW7, also known as 467317, was moving at a speed of about 14,400 miles / hour during transit – about 19 times the speed of sound!
Fortunately, he crossed the Earth at a distance of 3.3 million miles, although this is classified as "close" by NASA.
(Image: YouTube)
Despite this distance, astronomers were able to take incredibly detailed pictures of the asteroid during the passage.
The Slooh astronomical site broadcasted the event live using the NASA solar system telescope in the Canary Islands.
Paul Cox, a Slooh astronomer, said: "It may not seem so impressive to you to dislike astronomy, but this white dot above the center is the size of the One World Trade Center. from New York and twice the size of London. Tesson.
(Image: Science Photo Library RF)
"He travels at a speed of 14,361 miles an hour. It's 6.24 kilometers per second. This thing is massive and goes very fast, which means that it has a huge amount of energy.
"At the moment, it is 3.5 million kilometers, which may seem like a lot, but these numbers are tiny.
"It's a stone's throw in astronomical terms. And it's a pretty big stone to throw!
Fortunately, the asteroid avoids a collision with our planet, which could have been catastrophic.
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Mr. Cox added, "If an object of this size had an impact on the Earth, there would remain only one scratch: it could destroy a city and cause considerable damage to the area. However, just like the dinosaurs, we are desperately unprepared for such an event. "
This was not the first time 2000 QW7 exceeded our planet – the asteroid had already passed the Earth on September 1, 2000.
His next approach will be October 19, 2038, according to NASA.
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