Colossal 328-foot asteroid hurtling towards Earth, NASA says! Danger looming?

Amidst many smaller asteroids passing by Earth at close proximity these past couple of months, NASA has issued a warning that a colossal asteroid is dangerously heading for our planet. This asteroid, named Asteroid 2019 XS is colossal in size. Could the asteroid impact the planet and cause catastrophic destruction? Or will it just miss the planet by enough distance? Here’s what NASA has to say.

Key details about Asteroid 2019 XS

Asteroid 2019 XS is already on its way towards Earth travelling at a staggering speed of 42727 kilometers per hour and will just miss the planet tomorrow, November 10. It will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers, according to NASA. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that Asteroid 2019 XS is colossal in size, ranging anywhere between 147 feet and 328 feet, which is even bigger than an Airbus A380, the largest commercial aircraft in the world!

According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2019 XS was discovered way back on April 4, 2000. It belongs to the main Apollo group of asteroids, which are a group of Near-Earth asteroids named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

The Asteroid 2019 XS takes just 368 days to orbit the Sun during which its maximum distance from the Sun is 199 million kilometers and minimum distance is 101 million kilometers.

Did you know?

NASA has a mission in place to study the rising solar activity of the Sun. NASA’s SunRISE mission, which stands for the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment, is an upcoming mission expected to launch in 2024 to study and pinpoint how giant bursts of energetic particles originate from the Sun and evolve as they expand outward into space.

The mission will observe low radio frequency emissions to better understand the generation of Solar Storms as well as other explosive space events. This research will help scientists forecast space weather, improve our understanding of how our Sun works, and may apply to studies of other stars.