Terrifying 60-foot asteroid speeding towards Earth for a close encounter! NASA reveals details

NASA expects a huge asteroid to make a close approach to Earth soon. The space agency has revealed important details about this oncoming space rock.

Asteroid 2023 HG1 is a house-sized asteroid heading towards Earth. (Pixabay)

Asteroids have struck Earth several times in history and caused a major impact. According to NASA, a single asteroid collided with the planet nearly 65 million years ago, which is said to be the reason behind the extinction of dinosaurs. There have been other extinction level catastrophes too. Though the collision was cataclysmic and caused the dinosaurs to go extinct, our planet, and life itself, survived! Does this mean that Earth cannot be destroyed by an asteroid even though many living things on it may go extinct? Absolutely not! Due to the Earth's gravitational pull, the planet tends to attract celestial objects like asteroids and comets towards it, leading to impacts. We just have to look at the impact craters on moon to know how often it occurs.

Asteroids are plenty in number out there, some are far and some near, and now, NASA has revealed that another asteroid is on its way to a close encounter with Earth.

Asteroid 2023 HG1 key details

NASA has warned that an asteroid, given the designation of Asteroid 2023 HG1, is on its way towards Earth and will make its closest approach to the planet tomorrow, May 9. This space rock is travelling at a staggering speed of 8494 kilometers per hour and will pass Earth at a distance of 4.1 million kilometers. According to NASA, Asteroid 2023 HG1 is almost the size of a house with a width of nearly 60 feet!

Asteroid 2023 HG1 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids which are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the humongous 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

Did you know?

One asteroid that NASA is studying up close, called Bennu, has a 1/2700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2195. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will complete a 2-year investigation of Bennu before plucking a sample of asteroid material off its surface and delivering it back to Earth. Along with collecting a sample, OSIRIS-REx will also be studying how light absorbed from the Sun and re-radiated by Bennu affects its orbit—and consequently, how that orbit could become more dangerous for Earth.