Bus-sized asteroid set to fly by Earth, says NASA

Asteroids are fine till they're whooshing past our home planet. Even a nudge from these high-speed space rocks can spell disaster for Earth and all the life on it. A straight hit from an asteroid millions of years ago ended the reign of dinosaurs and paved the way for mammals to evolve.

NASA and other space agencies across the world keep an eye on the asteroids near Earth. The space agency has said that a bus-sized asteroid is set to go past Earth. The asteroid has been designated Asteroid 2023 XH7 by NASA.

NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has revealed that Asteroid 2023 XH7 will come as close as 940,148 kilometres to Earth. This may sound a lot but in terms of distances in space, this one is nothing. The asteroid is hurtling through space at 71276 kilometres per hour.

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Asteroid 2023 XH7 is from the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids. These are the asteroids that fly close to Earth.

NASA says that this is not the first time Asteroid XH7 has come close to Earth. The asteroid came close to Earth for the first time on July 5, 2020. At that time, it had passed by Earth from a lot afar. It was 9.7 million kilometers away.

The same asteroid will come into our neighbourhood again on July 22, 2033. At that time, it will be 63 million kilometres away from the Earth.

Does it pose a threat?

The asteroid is just 34 feet across, the size of a bus. Due to its small size, it does not pose a big threat to Earth. Asteroids bigger than 492 feet that fly by Earth at a distance less than 7.5 kilometres are classified by NASA as 'Potentially Hazardous Objects'.

NASA tracks asteroids using its vast network of telescopes that includes powerful ones such as NEOWISE telescope, Pans-STARRS1, Catalina Sky Survey, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and more.

(With inputs from agencies)