1500-foot asteroid speeding towards Earth at a blazing 77301 kmph, NASA warns

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NASA telescopes have revealed a gigantic asteroid heading towards Earth next week. Is it potentially hazardous? 

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The space rock that is worrying scientists has been named Asteroid 488453 (1994 XD). 

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It is a giant 1500-foot-wide asteroid, which is as big as a bridge and will be approaching very close to Earth next week.

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As per NASA's JPL, the gigantic rock will reach as close to Earth as 1.97 million miles on June 12.

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Not just this, NASA's CNEOS data has revealed at it is moving at an enormous speed of 77301 kmph!

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Is it a potentially hazardous asteroid? Yes, it is!

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Whenever a Near-Earth Object (NEO) approaches within 4.6 million miles or 7.5 million kilometres that is larger than about 150 meters, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office issues a warning and marks it as a potentially hazardous asteroid.

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Due to its enormous size and close approach to Earth, Asteroid 1994 XD is considered to be potentially hazardous.

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To detect danger from this upcoming colossal monster rock, NASA is using various technological assets. 

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To track upcoming asteroids, NASA uses ground-based telescopes, such as Pans-STARRS1 in Maui, Hawaii, and the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona.

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It also has the use of a space-based telescope, which is called NEOWISE. It has been tasked with finding, tracking, and characterizing NEOs, and identifying those that may pose a hazard to Earth.