A huge asteroid is set to fly by Earth on Wednesday, April 29.
The 1.5 mile wide asteroid named Asteroid 1998 OR2 will come as close as 3.9 million miles away from the Earth, according to images secured by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The flying rock that’s moving at over 19,000 miles per hour was first seen in 1998.
NASA scientists reassure that the asteroid will not hit Earth, although it comes particularly close at 16 times the distance as the moon is from the Earth.
Historically, over 90% of asteroids documented by NASA had potential to cause massive destruction to Earth as it has during the dinosaur age. Usually, asteroids are prevented from hitting Earth when something interferes with its trajectory or manipulates its gravitational pull.
“Impact of the Earth by an asteroid large enough to do damage at the surface is an extremely rare event, but it’s an inevitable event,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA Planetary Defense Officer.
There are a few things that can be done should an asteroid pose a threat to the planet. If we have an advance notice, we can handle the asteroid the calm way by sending a probe to parallel the asteroid in space to change the gravitational pull so that Earth is no longer a target.
Or, we can do like the movies and send a spacecraft missile to change the course of the asteroid by violent force.
So, there you have it. We are once again safe from another major calamity. Asteroid 1998 OR2 is set to fly by Earth on Wednesday, April 29 at 5:56 a.m. ET.
