Asteroid, bigger than A 380 Airbus aircraft, heads towards Earth! NASA issues warning

NASA has revealed that an aircraft-sized asteroid is heading straight for Earth today! Danger looming?

Know more about NASA’s warning about this gigantic asteroid. (Pixabay)

Although smaller asteroids often make close approaches to Earth, none of them have the potential to cause any major damage if they impact the surface. According to NASA, every 2000 years, an asteroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage. Considering that there has not been any such asteroids crash in recent memory Earth may well be due for one. Gigantic asteroids have been responsible for some of the biggest events in history. From the Chelyabinsk disaster that claimed many lives to the one which caused the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago, whenever asteroids have crashed on Earth, they have impacted lives.

Now, NASA has warned that another one is on its way, and although it is not a planet-killer, it is still huge enough to cause cataclysmic damage if it impacts Earth.

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. 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!

For reference, the largest commercial aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380 is 239 feet in length, making the asteroid even bigger than the aircraft!

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.

According to the-sky.org, 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.

Asteroid fun fact

According to NASA, the orbits of asteroids can be changed by Jupiter's massive gravity and by occasional close encounters with planets like Mars or other objects. These accidental encounters can knock asteroids out of the main belt, and hurl them into space in all directions across the orbits of the other planets.