Asteroid bigger than blue whale to come close to Earth at astonishing speeds

A 30-meter wide asteroid, 2019 RA, is bigger than a blue whale and is moving at a speed of more than 20,000 kmph.


Devdiscourse News Desk | New Delhi | Updated: 07-09-2019 20:02 IST | Created: 07-09-2019 20:02 IST
Asteroid bigger than blue whale to come close to Earth at astonishing speeds
Representative Picture. Image Credit: Pixabay

A 30-meter wide asteroid, 2019 RA, is heading towards Earth at extremely high speeds of more than 20,000 kmph, according to space agency NASA. The asteroid is expected to pass our planet from 44,000 miles away. The distance may seem very far in normal terms, but NASA says that the asteroid could be threatening as this distance is only considered an astronomical hair’s width.

Apart from 2019 RA, other massive asteroids, namely Asteroid 2019 GT 3, Asteroid 2010 CO1, Asteroid 2000 QW7, Asteroid 2019 RC, and Asteroid 1998 FF14, are also heading towards Earth but none of them are expected to collide.

The 2019 RA asteroid, which is bigger than a blue whale, does not threaten the extinction of humans but can make major impact in its surrounding if it crashes on land.

Only space rocks that are more than half a mile wide or larger could generate enough dust and debris to block sunlight so plants across the planet can no longer grow, posing an existential threat to humans.

Last month, billionaire Elon Musk had sparked tensions among people when he warned that we have "no defense" in case a major asteroid does hit Earth. "Great name! Wouldn’t worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense," Musk had tweeted, referring to the "God of Chaos" asteroid, also known as Apophis.

"Current calculations show that Apophis still has a small chance of impacting Earth, less than 1 in 100,000 many decades from now, but future measurements of its position can be expected to rule out any possible impacts," said NASA recently.

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