- It has been officially designated 52768 (1998 OR2) and will cross Earth’s orbit without any real danger of impact.
- In the remote event of impact with planet Earth, studies show that it could almost completely destroy it.
- A 23-year-old student discovers 17 planets, one similar to Earth.
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies has recently detected an unusually large asteroid that is expected to orbit Earth in April of this year.
Its actual size is estimated to be between 1.5 and 4 kilometers in diameter, as indicated on the space agency’s website. It is traveling at a speed of 8.7 kilometers per second and is estimated to approach our planet on June 2nd of this year.
Compared to other asteroids, to illustrate the difference, the Chelyabinsk asteroid, which hit Siberia in 2013 and caused nearly 1,500 injuries and extensive destruction to buildings, was about 15 meters wide and 17 meters long.
However, the danger of this asteroid, named 52768 (1998 OR2), impacting planet Earth is quite remote. According to calculations made by NASA experts, the asteroid will pass at a distance greater than the equivalent distance between the Moon and our planet, so we cannot consider ourselves in any real danger.