NASA has tracked an asteroid big enough this year to ‘end civilization’

NASA tracked more than 1,400 asteroids in 2020, including one large enough to put an end to civilization.

The space agency’s Center for Near Earth Object looks at rocks that could bring them within 1.3 astronomical units of the sun – or 45 million kilometers from Earth, which is close in space.

In April 2020, the largest spotted – asteroid 52768 – was classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid (PHA). It had a diameter of between 1.8 and 4.1 km and could be as much as five times the size of the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building.

Even though this particular asteroid isn’t going to bring about the end of days anytime soon, that’s not something NASA has ruled out in the future.

Obviously, it would be pretty shortsighted given the vastness of the universe and the sheer amount of things floating around there.

NASA discovers about 30 new Near Earth Objects (NEOs) every week and has been monitoring more than 19,000 objects since early 2019.

But no matter how hard they try, it is impossible for them to recognize them all, which means that an unexpected impact cannot be ruled out.

The entire event was streamed live online by the scientists at the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome, showing the moment when the giant sky stone piled past our planet in August.

Gian Masi, who hosted the live stream, said, “We know where the asteroid is because we know its orbit. And this same orbit makes it possible for us to say ‘it won’t hit us’.”

While the telescope’s footage isn’t exactly the highest-quality footage, you can clearly see the asteroid moving through a starry sky.

Another asteroid made a near-earth approach on September 8. The 37-meter-long NEO (near-Earth object), known as 2020 PT4, moved past the Earth and Moon a little over a million miles away – which certainly counts as ‘close’ in the context of space .

The space rock, which is about the length of two trucks, is hurtling at about 28,090 miles per hour (12.56 kilometers per second).

However, NASA assured us that if 2020 PT4 were ever to collide with Earth, its relatively small size (in space terms) means it would likely disintegrate in the atmosphere and cause minimal damage to our planet.

The asteroid, called 2020 QG, flew in about 2,950 km (1,830 miles) from Earth – extremely close in asteroid terms.

According to asteroid trackers and a catalog compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy, it is the closest ever measured.