NASA reveals bus-sized asteroid rushing towards Earth today! Check speed, size, other details

A bus-sized, Apollo group asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and is expected to make its closest approach to Earth today, October 6. Check details such as its speed, distance, and more.

Asteroid 2023 TG belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. (Pexels)

NASA has several space and ground-based telescopes in place to discover, track, and study asteroids. But if you're a budding astronomer, you can help the space agency too! NASA's new Daily Minor Planet Project allows astronomers and skywatchers to help discover new asteroids and track them in data sets. To capture asteroids, the Daily Minor Project uses the NASA-funded, University of Arizona-based Catalina Sky Survey which captures nearly 1000 images every night. Due to this volume, NASA scientists fall short of personnel to study these images. After looking at the image, you just have to click on a yes or a no button and add a comment if necessary, before moving on to the next image.

That's how you can help NASA keep an eye on these ancient space rocks!

In a new development, NASA has revealed details about an asteroid that is set to make a close approach to Earth today.

Asteroid 2023 TG

With its vast number of telescopes and observatories, NASA has discovered as many as 1298148 to date, and one of them will come close to Earth today. NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has designated this space rock as Asteroid 2023 TG, and it will make its closest approach to Earth today, October 6.

During its approach, it will come as close as just 691,000 kilometers from the planet's surface. NASA has revealed that it is hurtling towards Earth at a staggering speed of 26006 kilometers per hour, which is much faster than a hypersonic ballistic missile!

According to NASA, this asteroid is not big enough to be classified as a Potentially Hazardous Object. A celestial body has to be around 492 feet wide and pass Earth at a distance closer than 7.5 million kilometers to be considered a Potentially Hazardous Object. On the other hand, Asteroid 2023 TG is just 26 feet wide, making it as big as a bus.

It belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth's. These asteroids are named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.