NASA Alerts! Asteroid speeding at 75960 kmph flying past Earth is potentially hazardous

An asteroid named Asteroid 2022 QX1 is heading for Earth and will just miss the planet today, August 31. Here's what we know about it.

Asteroid 2022 QX1 is one of three asteroids flying past Earth today at a close distance. (Pixabay)

3 asteroids are expected to pass by Earth by a close margin today. These asteroids, named Asteroid 2022 QX1, Asteroid 2022 QX1 and Asteroid 2022 QS7, will fly past Earth at staggering speeds. Fortunately, these asteroids will miss the Earth by a few million kilometers. So, here's all about Asteroid 2022 QX1 which is set to miss Earth today, August 31.

Asteroid 2022 QX1 to fly past Earth today, August 31

The Asteroid 2022 QX1 is already on its way towards Earth. It is travelling at a staggering speed of 75,960 kilometers per hour. According to NASA, the Asteroid 2022 QX1 is nearly as big as an aeroplane, with a width of almost 110 feet, easily making it the largest of the 3 asteroids which will fly past the planet today. It will make its closest approach to Earth today, August 31, at a distance of nearly 2.06 million kilometers.

Although this asteroid is not expected to cause any potential damage, it still has been classified as a “Potentially Hazardous Object” due to the close proximity with which it will fly past Earth. NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office classifies Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) as potentially hazardous if they come within 8 million kilometers of Earth.

NASA's Lucy Mission to seek trojan asteroids in the solar system

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.

The mission is already proving to be fruitful as the trojan asteroid-seeking spacecraft recently discovered an asteroid called Polymele that had its own satellite. The day this discovery was made, the Lucy Mission team were planning to study the occultation of the star as the asteroid passed around it. Polymele's satellite is roughly 5 miles in diameter orbiting the asteroid about 200 kilometers from the asteroid. The asteroid itself is almost 17 miles in diameter and is nearly 480 million miles from Earth.