130-foot Near-Earth Asteroid approaching Earth at ferocious speed! NASA crunches data

A Near-Earth Asteroid could make its closest approach to Earth for the first time ever! NASA has revealed details such as speed, size, and more.

Asteroid 2023 JL2 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. (Pixabay)

Space agencies such as NASA and ESA, with the help of several space and ground-based telescopes, discover and track asteroids that are in space. Approximately 3,000 new NEOs are discovered annually, which makes continuous monitoring and trajectory prediction of these space rocks crucial. Although an asteroid isn't expected to hit Earth in the next 100 years, according to Dr. Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), nothing in life is certain. In, fact the uncertainty is around the many asteroids that NASA discovers at virtually the last moment.

That turned out to be true especially for the people of Russia as an asteroid strike on Earth was reported in the city of Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013. It recorded a 59 feet wide asteroid exploding over the city which left nearly 8000 buildings damaged and over 1000 people injured.

In separate news, NASA has reported that an asteroid is on a trajectory towards Earth and it could make a close approach soon.

Asteroid 2023 JL2 details

According to the data published by CNEOS, an asteroid designated as Asteroid 2023 JL2 is approaching Earth at a ferocious speed and is expected to make its closest approach to the planet tomorrow, May 20. How fast is it going? Well, NASA has revealed that this space rock is currently travelling towards Earth at 33666 kilometers per hour. It will come as close as 5.9 million kilometers.

What's concerning about this asteroid is its size. NASA estimates it to be around 130 feet wide, which makes it almost as big as an aircraft! It belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth's.

NASA's advanced tech

NASA keeps a watch on these asteroids by studying data collected by various telescopes and observatories such as the Pan-STARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey, and the NEOWISE telescope. NASA also has a NEO Surveyor mission planned for launch in 2026 to gain even greater in-depth data using a new orbiter.