BEWARE! Gigantic asteroid heading for Earth tomorrow; NASA issues warning

NASA has issued a warning that a gigantic asteroid is on its way towards Earth. Will the asteroid hit or miss the planet? Here’s what NASA says.

A massive asteroid is speeding towards the Earth tomorrow! Is the planet in any danger? Find out below. (Pixabay)

Another asteroid is coming towards us! NASA has issued yet another asteroid warning that a gigantic asteroid is heading for our planet. This asteroid, named Asteroid 2022 RQ, is huge in size. But will the asteroid impact the planet and extinguish all life on Earth? Or will it just miss the planet by enough distance to prevent any catastrophe? 

Asteroid 2022 RQ heading for Earth tomorrow, September 13 

Asteroid 2022 RQ is already on its way towards Earth travelling at a staggering speed of 49,536 and will just miss the planet tomorrow, September 13. It will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 3.7 million kilometers, according to NASA. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that Asteroid 2022 RQ is 84 feet wide, nearly the size of an aircraft.

According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 RQ was discovered on September 1, 2022 and belongs to the main Apollo group of asteroids. The asteroid 's farthest point from the Sun is 328 million kilometers, and the nearest point to the Sun is 110 million kilometers. Asteroid 2022 RQ takes 648 days to complete one orbit around the Sun. 

How are Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) like asteroids studied? 

NASA currently has a NEO Observations Program in place to track, and characterize at least 90 percent of the NEOs that are 140 meters or larger in size. Most of the asteroids are observed with the help of the NEOWISE Project which repurposed NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer to work as a survey telescope and scan the sky for Near-Earth Objects. NASA JPL also uses a variety of ground-based telescopes in the hunt for these asteroids.

NASA JPL's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has also recently developed a next-generation asteroid impact monitoring system which has gone online.