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A " potentially wild " asteroid the size of a skyscraper is set to postal code past Earth on Tuesday ( Sept. 17),according to NASA .
The skyscraper - sizeasteroid , mention 2024 ON , has an estimated diam between 721 and 1,575 foot ( 220 to 480 meters ) , and will hurry past the Earth at 19,842 miles per hour ( 31933 kilometre / h ) — or around 26 times the speed of sound .
An illustration of an asteroid making a close approach to Earth
At its skinny approach , the asteroid will get along within about 0.62 million international mile ( 1 million klick ) ofEarth , around 2.6 times the average distance between world and themoon . By cosmic measure , this is an incredibly tight border — but still far enough away that no tellurian need worry about the kick the bucket space careen .
NASAdeems any space aim that comes within 120 million miles ( 193 million klick ) of Earth a " near - terra firma object " and classifies any magnanimous object within 4.65 million naut mi ( 7.5 million km ) of our planet as " potentially wild . " NASA tracks the locations and orbit of roughly 28,000 asteroids , following them with the Asteroid Terrestrial - impact Last Alert System ( ATLAS ) , an array of four telescopes that perform a CAT scan of the entire night sky every 24 hr .
NASA has estimate the trajectories of all these near - Earth objects beyond the end of the century . ground faces no known risk from an apocalyptic asteroid collision for at least the next 100 twelvemonth , according to NASA .
A graphic showing asteroid 2024 ON’s orbit (white ellipse) compared to the solar system planets
Related : Why are asteroids and comet such weird shapes ?
If 2024 ON were to hit Earth , it would not cause a cataclysmic case like the 7.5 - nautical mile - wide of the mark ( 12 km)dinosaur - killing asteroidthat struck Earth 66 million years ago . But this does n’t mean its effects would n’t be far - attain . For example , a 2013 plosion of a 59 - fundament - wide ( 18 m ) meteor above Chelyabinsk , Russia , mother a blast roughly equal to around 400 to 500 kilotons of TNT , or 26 to 33 clock time the energy exhaust by theHiroshima dud , and injured around 1,500 multitude .
sympathize the trajectories of asteroids can be a harder task than it first appears because of the so - call Yarkovsky effect . Named after the nineteenth - hundred technologist who first proposed it , the effect mean that , over prospicient menses of meter , space rock ‘n’ roll draw and emit enough momentum - carrying light to subtly change their orbits . This means that measure the Yarkovsky consequence is crucial when predicting which asteroids are potential threats .
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Space agencies around the world are already exercise on potential way to distract a grievous asteroid if one ever headed our way . On Sept. 26 , 2022 , the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) spacecraft airt the non - wild asteroid Dimorphos byramming it off course , altering the asteroid ’s eye socket by 32 second in the first test of Earth ’s planetary defense system . NASA has sincehailed the missionary station as a successbeyond all expectations .
China has also saidit is in the early planning stage of an asteroid - redirect mission . By slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu , which will swing within 4.6 million miles ( 7.4 million kilometer ) of Earth ’s field between the age 2175 and 2199 , scientists hope to amuse the space John Rock even further from its current flight ..
For those interested in following the course of 2024 ON as it skims past our satellite , the Virtual Telescope Project will showa live provender of its path beginning on Sept. 15 at 19:30 UTC , when the objective will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere .
