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The imposing asteroid, christened 2019 RC, directs us towards a trajectory "close approach". NASA expects the asteroid to get closer to Earth tonight at around 9:33 pm EDT (4:43 pm EDT). The asteroid was only discovered on September 2 at the beginning of this month, but NASA has since nicknamed the rock an object close to Earth or NEO. The US space agency has also classified the rock as "potentially dangerous" for the safety of the Earth.
The RC asteroid will fly over the Earth tonight at a dizzying speed of about 15.08 km / h or 33,732 mph (54,288 km / h).
NASA estimates that the rock measures between 120 and 260 m (393.7 ft) in diameter.
An asteroid of this size is about 2.7 times larger than Big Ben's clock tower in London.
If the asteroid struck a populated city like London, the force of the impact could kill thousands of people.
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Because of these factors, the asteroid RC has been classified as "potentially dangerous asteroid" or PHA.
According to a 2015 Asteroid Hazard Study, people living with HIV / AIDS are all asteroids greater than 140 meters in diameter.
Space rocks must also cross the Earth's orbit for a distance of at least 7.5 million kilometers.
The term "potentially" does not imply an immediate risk of impact tonight, but rather the possibility of future impact.
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The study on asteroids, written by astronomer David Perna and his colleagues, reads as follows: "The PHAs are large enough to survive in the Earth's atmosphere, causing significant damage. during the impact and their orbits could in principle cause them to collide with our planet in the next few years. century."
The study also noted that the study of these rocky objects is "essential" to the protection of the planet from future cataclysms.
According to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Objects (CNEOS), the 2019 asteroid RC will approach Earth tonight at a distance of 0.04465 astronomical unit (AU).
A single astronomical unit describes the distance between the Earth and the Sun – about 149 million kilometers.
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In other words, NASA expects the asteroid to miss Earth from a distance of about 6.6 million kilometers.
The distance is 17.38 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
But on the scale of the universe, safety margins like this one are incredibly small.
NASA stated: "When they gravitate around the Sun, objects close to the Earth can sometimes approach the Earth.
"Note that a" near "passage astronomically can be very far in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometers."
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