A huge asteroid almost the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza will skim past Earth today, NASA has warned.
The 120 m (394 ft) asteroid, scientifically named 2024 JZ, will pass by the planet at a staggering speed of 56,000 mph (90,123), 65 times faster than a bullet.
But there’s no need to head toward the doomsday bunker just yet, as this asteroid will safely pass Earth at a distance of 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles).
Although this may seem very far away, NASA still classifies the asteroid as a “near-Earth object” (NEO).
Dr Edward Bloomer, senior astronomer at Royal Greenwich Observatory, told MailOnline: “Today’s passing is not a concern at all, this is not the sort of thing we should be worrying about.”
An asteroid almost as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza will pass by Earth today, although experts say it is perfectly safe
Asteroid 2024 JZ will pass Earth today at a speed of 56,000 mph (90.123), 65 times faster than a bullet (artist’s impression)
NASA writes: ‘OCTs are comets and asteroids that have been pushed by the gravitational pull of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter Earth’s vicinity.
“Composed primarily of water ice embedded with dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system, while most rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. “.
An OCT is defined as any object that is 1.3 astronomical units (AU) (120.8 million miles) from the Sun and therefore 0.3 AU (27.8 million miles) from orbit. from the earth.
Asteroids are defined as “potentially hazardous” if they are within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65 million miles) from Earth and are larger than 140 meters (459 feet) in diameter.
Although 2024 JZ will be at a perfectly safe distance just 0.028 AU from Earth, this is considered relatively close in astronomical terms.
At 120 m (394 ft) in diameter, this asteroid is almost as large as the Great Pyramid of Giza (pictured) and larger than Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty (file photo).
An even closer collision will also occur tonight when a small asteroid called 2024 JT3 passes just 12,000 miles (19,300 km) from Earth.
However, Juan Luis Cano, from ESA’s Planetary Defense Office, assured MailOnline that Earth is “absolutely” safe.
Cano says that “there is no possibility of colliding with Earth.”
He adds: “In any case, a 5 to 10 m object would normally disintegrate in the atmosphere releasing some small meteorites to the ground.”
OCTs are monitored by a network of professional and volunteer astronomers who detect objects passing through the solar system.
Thanks to their efforts, dozens of OCTs are detected every month and their trajectories are predicted with a high degree of accuracy.
In fact, the passage of large objects like 2024 JZ through Earth’s orbit is so routine that ESA classifies this asteroid as a “very frequent event.”
The vast majority of these objects burn up in the planet’s atmosphere and, instead of crashing into the ground, we see them as shooting stars.
Each year, Earth even passes through several dense clouds of debris left by comets that create meteor showers like this month’s Eta Aquarids.
What differentiates OCTs from these meteors is that they are large enough to pass through the atmosphere without being destroyed.
And while today’s close encounter is nothing to worry about, Dr. Bloomer says there is a risk of an impact at some point in the future.
“We’re betting every day,” he said.
“If 2024 JZ was on a threat intercept course, that would be a big problem because it’s a big chunk of rock that moves pretty quickly.”
During the Tunguska event of 1908, an asteroid less than half the size of 2024 JZ exploded over an area of the Siberian forest, leveling 830 square miles of trees.
Likewise, Dr. Bloomer points out that the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged 7,200 buildings and injured 1,491 people in Russia, was only 20 meters in diameter.
Most worrying was the fact that the Chelyabinsk meteor had previously not been detected when it collided with Earth.
As Mr. Cano explains, although there is currently no relevant threat, “the real problem lies in the fact that there are still many OCTs to be found.”
According to NASA, there are 34,914 known OCTs in our solar system (data correct as of May 9)
Fortunately, NASA has already invested in methods to protect the planet from incoming asteroids.
In November 2021, the space agency launched the DART mission, which sent a satellite crashing into the side of Dimorphos, an asteroid about 10.9 million kilometers from Earth.
This test showed that by hitting an asteroid with a small satellite early enough, the small impact could push it into a safe orbit when it reaches Earth.
Dr. Bloomer says, “If you can get to it faster and earlier, then you’ll actually need to make a smaller impact to achieve a larger deviation over time.”
“Whereas if you have something that you don’t catch until very late, then you have to make more efforts to divert it in time.”
While this mission may have been just a rehearsal, it demonstrated that the planet could be saved with enough notice.