480-foot Asteroid speeding towards Earth at a scary 56847kmph, says NASA

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A monstrous 480-foot hazardous asteroid is rushing towards Earth and will come extremely close, NASA alert reveals.

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An asteroid named Asteroid 2023 FM is on a direct course towards Earth today, April 6, prompting NASA to issue an alert.

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NASA's JPL has gives the tag of potentially hazardous object to all the asteroids that approach within 4.6 million miles of Earth. 

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This upcoming asteroid dubbed Asteroid 2023 FM will get as close as 1.87 million miles (3 million kilometres) to Earth. 

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There is another reason to call this asteroid a big threat to Earth. It is mammoth in size!

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As per NASA’s JPL data, asteroid 2023 FM is as big as 480-foot, which is equal to the size of a skyscraper.

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Not just that, it is travelling at a blistering speed of 56847 kmph. 

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While there is no expectation of this asteroid colliding with Earth, even a small deviation in its trajectory caused by the Earth's gravitational pull could potentially cause it to veer towards our planet and impact it. 

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According to TheSky.org, the asteroid 2023 FM was detected on March 16, 2023, and belongs to the Apollo group.

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How does NASA track asteroids? NASA-backed ground-based telescopes such as Pans-STARRS1 in Maui, Hawaii and the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona, have conducted surveys and identified thousands of near-Earth objects. 

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In addition, the NEOWISE space-based telescope has identified hundreds more by scanning the skies using near-infrared wavelengths of light from its polar orbit around Earth.