NASA Warns of a Massive Asteroid Approaching Earth This Week: Check Here!

Amid COVID-19 outbreak and fear, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has issued a warning that a huge asteroid is making its way towards the earth. 

NASA said in a statement said, “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less are considered PHAs." The massive asteroid is named as “Asteroid 2020 ND” and it will move past Earth on July 24.

Giving details about the asteroid, NASA said, asteroid 2020 ND is about 170 metre-long and it will be as close as 0.034 astronomical units (5,086,328 kilometres) to our planet. The asteroid is travelling at a great speed of 48,000 kilometres per hour. The distance from the earth is what categories this asteroid as “potentially dangerous”. 

Meanwhile, there is also information of two asteroids are expected to pass our planet on Sunday (July 19). The two asteroids named by NASA are 2016 DY30 and 2020 ME3. The 2016 DY30 is headed in the direction of Earth at a speed of 54,000 kilometres per hour whereas 2020 ME3 is travelling at 16,000 kilometers per hour. The 2016 DY30 is the smaller asteroid of the two as it is 15 feet wide, NASA further stated in the statement. 

However, these two asteroids don’t pose a threat to our planet. Further explaining on Near-Earth objects, NASA classifies objects like these get nudged by other planets’ gravitational attraction resulting in their proximity to our solar system.