An asteroid the size of a house is approaching Earth today followed by two other smaller celestial objects.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) issued an alert for the three asteroids, the closest of which will approach within 192,000 miles of Earth, 48,000 miles closer than the Moon is currently to us.
The size and proximity of asteroids may provide astronomers with a unique research opportunity as they work to create a defense system to prevent future space rocks from hitting Earth.
Three asteroids are headed for Earth’s orbit and NASA predicts one will come closer than the Moon
The smaller asteroid, called 2024 TA12, measures about 14 feet and will come between the Earth and the Moon.
Meanwhile, a bus-sized asteroid called 2021 TK11 and 2024 TH3, about the size of a house, will approach Earth from 1.9 million miles and 2.8 million miles away, respectively.
However, NASA has confirmed that the asteroids will not come close enough to our planet and “therefore do not pose any impact risk.”
These asteroids are classified as Near-Earth Objects (NEO) because they come within 120 million miles of the Sun thanks to the gravitational pull of other nearby planets.
As more asteroids are observed, the accuracy with which astronomers can predict where an object will be years or decades in the future improves dramatically.
Asteroids are also called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) because they are 120 million miles from the sun.
This means that researchers could determine more precisely whether asteroids will approach or collide with Earth, avoiding another catastrophe like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Although none of the impending asteroids pose a major threat, NASA is preparing for a worst-case scenario by studying OCTs.
NASA established its Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) in 2016 to locate, track and better understand comets and asteroids “that could pose an impact hazard to Earth.”
The agency developed the Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) space telescope, which will launch in 2027 to discover and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids located 30 million miles from Earth’s orbit.