209-foot asteroid 2022 WO5 rushing towards Earth today; will come too close for comfort

An enormous 209-foot asteroid named 2022 WO5 is zooming towards planet Earth today. NASA has revealed its speed, distance, and more.

Asteroid 2022 WO5 reaching Earth today. Check details provided by NASA. (NASA)

Our planet Earth is surrounded by a huge number of threats and one of them that we face is posed by asteroids. There are several of these near-Earth objects (NEO) in space that pose a threat to the entire planet. The impact an asteroid can have mainly depends on its size and its speed, which give it a tremendous destructive power. As per the latest details provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an enormous, 209-foot asteroid named 2022 WO5 is rushing towards Earth today, Sunday, December 4. NASA has informed about the asteroid's size, speed and more. Here is all you need to know about this asteroid.

As far as the size of Asteroid 2022 WO5 is concerned, then know that it ranges between 95-foot to 209-foot (29m-64m in diameter). And as for proximity, then it will be coming too close for comfort to our planet Earth today. It will come as close as 7345467 kilometres. The asteroid is also moving at an astonishing speed of 32727 kilometer per hour. Will the asteroid collide with Earth or impact it in anyway? Well no, it will simply pass by the planet if it keeps on travelling in the trajectory it is currently in.

It can be known that if an asteroid strikes the Earth, it could be very destructive for a huge part of the region it impacts. Not only that, the effects of the crash can be felt on other parts of the globe too as a huge amount of debris will be blown into the sky akin to what happens when a volcano explodes.

Though not all the asteroids pose a threat to the planet, it is important for us to track them in order to find the ones that may be on a collision course with Earth and that is what space agencies like NASA strive to do virtually on a 24/7 basis. in order to keep an eye on the asteroids and track their movement, NASA has deployed several Earth and Sky-based technologies like telescopes, satellites, and more.

Other than the asteroid WO5, two other asteroids namely 2022 WQ5 and 2022 XD are also zooming towards planet Earth today and they too are travelling at tremendous speed and are big enough to be potentially hazardous.