Asteroid 2023 GV1 set for close approach! NASA reveals speed, distance and more

NASA has warned that an aircraft-sized asteroid could make a close visit to Earth today. Check out the details here.

Asteroid 2023 GV1 belongs to the Amor group of asteroids. (Pixabay)

NASA has revealed that as many as 5 asteroids made close approaches with Earth yesterday. Although these space rocks pass Earth at a relatively safe distance without causing any harm, there is no guarantee that no asteroid will ever strike Earth. If history has taught us anything, nothing in life is certain. That turned out to be true especially for 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.

NASA has warned that an asteroid is on its way today and although it is not expected to be a planet-killing asteroid, it can still cause major damage if it impacts, just like it did in Chelyabinsk. Here are the details, as per NASA.

Asteroid 2023 GV1 details

An asteroid named Asteroid 2023 GV1 is already on its way towards Earth travelling at a staggering speed of 12972 kilometers per hour and is expected to just miss the planet today, April 19. It will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 6.7 million kilometers, according to NASA.

Asteroid 2023 GV1 belongs to the Amor group of asteroids which are Earth-approaching near-Earth asteroids with orbits exterior to Earth's but interior to Mars', named after asteroid 1221 Amor.

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that Asteroid 2023 GV1 is similar in size to the Chelyabinsk asteroid, with a width between 55 feet and 124 feet, meaning it's nearly the size of a commercial aircraft and could potentially cause similar damage if it impacts the surface.

NASA's asteroid tracking tech

NASA tracks asteroids using a combination of ground-based and space-based telescopes. The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), scans the night sky for moving objects and reports any potential asteroid detections, while some space-based observatories use infrared sensors to detect asteroids and their characteristics. Some of these include the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the NEOWISE mission.