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The US space agency warns of a salvo of space rocks heading towards Earth, ranging in size from a measly 10 meters in diameter to a positively petrifying 213.
When not keeping a close eye on its Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars this week, NASA is busy monitoring the skies for potential threats to life on Earth – namely asteroids. And this week is no exception, as five of these space rocks are expected to rock the planet we live on.
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On Sunday, 2021 DD1 10-meter asteroid and 2021 DK1 61-meter asteroid will shoot past Earth at a safe distance of 1.6 million kilometers and six million kilometers, respectively.
However, they are just the act of warming up for what NASA describes as the “The size of a stadium” the asteroid 2020 XU6, which is approximately 213 meters in diameter. To put that in perspective, it’s twice the size of London’s Big Ben and two and a half times the size of the Statue of Liberty.
The 2020 XU6 drives at a speed of 8.4 kilometers per second or 30,240 kilometers per hour. Since the circumference of the Earth is 40,075 kilometers, it would take a little over an hour for the asteroid to circle the entire planet.
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Fortunately, however, we are expected to miss the space rock by around four million kilometers when it passes on February 22, so humanity can breathe a collective sigh of relief for the time being.
The giant space rock will be followed shortly thereafter by 2020 BV9 (23 meters), which will drop to a distance of 5.6 million kilometers, and 2021 CC5 (40 meters), which will drop to around 6.9 million kilometers.
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