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Asteroid Heading Towards Earth – NASA Confirms Asteroid Two Miles Wide Will Skim Past Earth
A HUGE asteroid measuring almost two miles across will skim past Earth in just 48 HOURS, Nasa has confirmed. It should fly safely past earth on Saturday, but astronomers are keeping a close eye on 86666 (2000 FL10) which, according to NASA, will be one of the biggest to pass close to our planet in recent times.
The giant lump of rock is currently hurtling through space at 40,000 miles an hour. The asteroid’s exact size is still unclear though it is estimated to be between 0.7miles metres and 1.6 miles wide – more than 15 times bigger than other asteroids currently on Nasa’s radar.
A collision would be nothing short of catastrophic with the rock fragment thought to be around a quarter of the size of Mount Everest.
Nasa has released an animated projection of the asteroid’s path, which you can watch below. 86666 appears from the top left of the screen as it nears Earth’s orbit. It makes 2014-YB35, which had worried astronomers around the world watching the skies in March, pale into insignificance.
The impact would eclipse the devastating 1908 Tunguska Event which saw a 50-metre wide asteroid crash into Siberia.
It flattened around 80 million trees and sent a shock wave across Russia measuring five on the Richter scale. The event is held by scientists as a benchmark for the catastrophic consequence of an asteroid impact with earth.
Thankfully despite Nasa labelling it a ‘near-Earth event’ 86666 is several million miles away and unlikely to hit Earth.
Bill Napier, professor of astronomy at the University of Buckinghamshire, said if a sizeable asteroid hit Earth it could “take out a small country”. It’s World Space Week. Here are breathtaking images taken from and of space, along with some of the greatest discoveries known to mankind. He claimed although the risk from 86666 was small there is always the chance of another Tunguska Event from this or another asteroid orbiting Earth.
He said: “The danger is in the future if asteroids like this are nudged off their orbit they can effectively become missiles.
“There are a lot of asteroids out there with the potential to be hazardous which have not been discovered.”The threat of a collision last year prompted world experts to set aside a day to warn of the dangers of space objects – Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (PHAs). He said: “This is the first organised opportunity for the general public to let their space agencies know that discovering the 99 per cent of currently unknown but dangerous asteroids that might hit with no warning is a high priority for them. The maximum detected hazard rating using the Torino Impact Hazard Scale is 10.
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Source: http://fusionlacedillusions.com/2015/10/09/asteroid-heading-towards-earth-nasa-confirms-asteroid-two-miles-wide-will-skim-past-earth/
