Hazardous asteroid heads for Earth TODAY; NASA says Apollo-class asteroid big as a building

A potentially hazardous building-sized asteroid named 2007 FF1 is making its closest approach to Earth, NASA confirmed.

According to NASA, the asteroid will be around 120 m - 260 metres wide, equivalent to the size of a building. (REUTERS)

It's the first day of a new month in the year 2022 and the fascinating show by asteroids continues unabated! And yes, there is an asteroid today heading for a close approach with Earth. NASA confirmed a new “potentially hazardous” asteroid making its closest approach to Earth today on April 1, that is today any time soon. According to the NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the near-Earth object named 2007 FF1 is said to be around 120 metres to 260 metres wide, which is as big as a multi-storey building. This asteroid today, will fly by Earth from a distance of just 4,610,000 miles. The asteroid has been classified as “potentially hazardous” by NASA. Besides this, it is an Apollo-class asteroid, that are the near-Earth objects whose orbit crosses the orbit of Earth.

Actually, NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies keeps track of asteroids that have the potential to collide with Earth. That would be a catastrophe and could destroy humanity forever. NASA tracks almost 1,000 asteroids that have passed close to Earth since 1968. And when an asteroid with a diameter of more than 150 meters approaches Earth, NASA classifies it as a potentially hazardous asteroid and monitors it closely. Hence, NASA classified Asteroid 2007 FF1 as potentially hazardous.

More about the upcoming Asteroid…

The upcoming building-sized asteroid 2007 FF1 had also made its closest approach back in 2020, the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. According to NASA, anything passing near Earth's orbit is called a Near-Earth Object (NEO). Also, it needs to be located at a distance less than 1.3 times the distance from Earth. It has been monitoring tens of thousands of NEOs to know whether they can be hazardous for Earth or not.

According to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object studies, this asteroid was first discovered in March 2007. It was found to be moving through space at just a speed of 39,348 kilometers per hour. After today's closest approach to Earth, its next nearest approach is expected in August 2035.