5 Christmas asteroids rushing towards Earth; horrifyingly, one will come closer than moon
NASA has warned that these will range from a 22-foot asteroid that will get even closer than the moon to Earth, to a massive 150-foot monster asteroid. Know all about these horror monster rocks. (Pixabay)
Not one or two, but a total of 5 asteroids will make an uncomfortably close approach to Earth this Christmas weekend. One of these Christmas asteroids will come even closer than our Moon. (NASA)
Among these, NASA has spotted four giant monster rocks approaching Earth today, which pose a great risk to our planet. One of which is dubbed 2022 YO which is 41-foot wide and will make the closest approach of 0.837 million miles from Earth. (Pexels)
NASA's JPL says that any asteroid larger than about 150 meters that can approach the Earth within 4.6 million miles is termed as 'Potentially hazardous asteroids.' (Pixabay)
Another upcoming asteroid today measures 22-foot and is named asteroid 2022 YX2. NASA's JPL informed us that it will come dangerously close, around 143000 miles to Earth. This asteroid will be closer than the moon as the average distance between Earth and the moon is about 239000 miles. (Pixabay)
There is another airplane-sized asteroid named 2022 XN which is zooming towards Earth at a blistering speed of 39548 km per hour, CNEOS data mentioned. It is a 150-foot-wide asteroid that will come as close as 2.02 million miles to the Earth. (Pixabay)
Asteroid 2022 XM1, which measures 99-foot in size, is ready to make the closest approach at 2.3 million miles at a speed of 45752 km per hour. (Flickr)
On Christmas day, a 71-foot wide Asteroid 2020 YY1 is hurtling towards at a fiery speed of 53011 kmph. (Pixabay)
NASA keeps a track of all these asteroids that come near the Earth in order to ensure it finds out early if any of them will hit the Earth. If the information is available early enough, NASA can take some action to try and stop a disaster from happening. (Pixabay)
One such test it carried out was called DART (double asteroid redirection test) in which it crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid and deflected it from its course. (Flickr)