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The closest potential impact date with the asteroid, dubbed Asteroid 2018 LF16, falls on August 8, 2023. The asteroid could then cross again on the Earth's orbit the 3 and 2024 August and 1 August 2025. A total of 62 dates at which the rock could touch the Earth, although the risk of this cataclysm occurring is quite low.
According to NASA calculations, there is a one in 30 chance that LF16 will be projected onto our home planet – 99.9999967% chance of missing a shot.
On the Torino impact risk scale, the asteroid is a "zero", which means that the probability of impact is either non-existent or as close as possible to the one that exists.
But the size and number of potential impact dates make space a great thing to follow.
At present, the asteroid is heading into space at over 33,844 mph or 15.13 km per second.
NASA experts estimate that the asteroid has a diameter of about 213 m (698.8 ft).
A space rock of this size is about twice as high as Big Ben's clock tower in London, twice as high as the Statue of Liberty in New York and four times higher than Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
If it's not terrifying enough, the impact force of an object of this size could be just as important as Tsar Bomba's 50 Megaton explosion – the most powerful nuclear device ever exploded on the surface of the planet. .
Fortunately, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), asteroids of this size tend to hit Earth less than once every 1,000 years.
And it would take a much larger asteroid, measuring 6 km wide (10 km), to witness an extinction event comparable to that of the dinosaur killer asteroid of 65 million Meme it d & # 39; years.
ESA said: "Some asteroids are very large and would cause enormous destruction if they hit the Earth, but their estimated population in our solar system is rather small and more than 90% of them would have been discovered. None of these presents any risk of impact.
"Some are very small (less than 10 m in diameter) and only a tiny fraction of the estimated population has been discovered, but any impact would be safe.
"The main challenge comes from the population of medium-sized objects, ranging from a few tens to several hundred meters in diameter."
Many of these asteroids exist in the void of space and the damage of one of these space rocks could cause significant damage to cities or populated areas.
READ MORE: WATCH: A huge fireball illuminates the sky over Russia – and NASA missed it!
But with sufficient notice, ESA said that appropriate measures could be taken to protect the population.
The LF16 asteroid was discovered by NASA's Reaction Propulsion System (JPL) Sentry system, an automated asteroid surveillance system designed to track potential hidden impact hazards in space.
NASA said, "Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continuously analyzes the most recent asteroid catalog to research the possibilities of a future impact with the Earth over the next 100 years. .
"Whenever a potential impact is detected, it will be analyzed and the results immediately published here, except in unusual cases where we seek independent confirmation."
READ MORE: Theorists say that the size of an asteroid from a VILLAGE could crush on Earth in 2028
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