The US space agency is warning of a burst of space rocks on their way to Earth, ranging in size from a paltry 10 meters in diameter to an absolutely petrified 213.
When NASA didn’t keep a close eye on its Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars this week, NASA is busy monitoring the heavens for potential threats to life on Earth – namely asteroids. And this week is no exception, as five such space rocks will hum the planet we call home.
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On Sunday, the 10-meter asteroid 2021 DD1 and the 61-meter asteroid 2021 DK1 will shoot past Earth at a safe distance of 1.6 million kilometers and six million kilometers, respectively.
However, they are just the warming up for what NASA describes as the “Stadium size” asteroid 2020 XU6, with a diameter of about 213 meters. To put that in perspective, it is twice the size of Big Ben in London and two and a half times the size of the Statue of Liberty.
2020 XU6 travels 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 the asteroid a little over an hour to complete a round of the entire planet.
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Fortunately, the space rock is expected to miss us about four million kilometers when it flies past on February 22, so humanity may be breathing a collective sigh of relief for now.
The gigantic space rock will be followed shortly thereafter by 2020 BV9 (23 meters), which will pass at a distance of 5.6 million kilometers, and 2021 CC5 (40 meters), which will pass at approximately 6.9 million kilometers.
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