Giant 92 foot Asteroid to crash on Earth tomorrow? NASA has this to say

A giant 92 foot asteroid named Asteroid 2020 QW3 is rushing towards Earth. Will this asteroid crash on Earth tomorrow, August 22, 2022? Know what NASA said.

NASA warns of Asteroid 2020 QW3 nearing Earth tomorrow, on August 22. (Pixabay)

A giant 92 foot asteroid is rushing towards Earth and it has got many wondering whether it will crash on our planet tomorrow! The asteroid is travelling at a staggering speed of 64800 kilometers per hour. It can be known that the Asteroid 2020 QW3 is different from previous asteroids that have flown past Earth recently as it does not belong to the Apollo group of asteroids but belongs to the Amor group. The asteroid orbits around the Sun, taking almost 732 days to complete 1 orbit. The asteroid is big and travelling at a massive speed and therefore, it has humongous destructive power. Is there a reason to worry about an asteroid strike on Earth?

According to the information provided by NASA, the asteroid, which is nearly the size of an aeroplane, will just about miss hitting Earth tomorrow, August 22 and will pass very close to it at 06:41am. Nasa says Asteroid 2020 QW3 will fly past Earth at a distance of a mere 3.3 million kilometers. Although NASA has stated that this asteroid will not pose any viable threat to Earth, it was still classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid due to the close proximity of its encounter with Earth and to watch out for any possibility of variation in its flight path at the last moment that may send it careening directly towards Earth.

According to Sky.org, Asteroid 2020 QW3 is at a maximum distance of 321 million kilometers from the Sun. On the other hand, its distance from the Earth is just 8.96 million kilometers, equivalent to 0.06 astronomical units. An astronomical unit (AU, or au) is basically a unit of length equal to the average, or mean, distance between Earth and the Sun, that is, 149,597,870.7 km (92,955,807.3 miles).

To study asteroids that are not in the asteroid belt, NASA has the Lucy Space Mission. NASA launched its Lucy spacecraft on Oct. 16, 2021 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is NASA's first space mission to study the Trojans, a group of asteroids which orbit the Sun in two groups, according to NASA. It is built to seek out trojan asteroids millions of miles from Earth.

Apart from Asteroid 2020 QW3, an asteroid named 2015 QH3 of 44 feet will also pass Earth on August 22. As per the information provided by NASA, the asteroid's closest Earth approach will be of 1,340,000 MI/Km.