ROCKY HORROR
NASA is tracking huge asteroid ‘twice as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza’ which will ‘hit Earth’s orbit next month’
NASA is tracking a huge asteroid nearly twice the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza which is hurtling towards Earth at 31,400mph.
The so-called 465824 (2010 FR), which is up to 270m wide, is set to collide with our planet's orbit on September 6th.
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It has been called a Near-Earth Object by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) meaning it is 1.3 astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun.
One AU is the average distance between the Sun and our planet.
However, the giant space rock is not a threat to human life, according to scientists at the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
The flying object, which was first spotted by astronomers in 2010, is classed as an Apollo asteroid because it crosses the Earth's orbit.
Experts are currently tracking around 2,000 asteroids and comets which could threaten our planet.
This comes as a space rock the size of a car zipped past Earth earlier this month in what scientists say is the closest flyby on record.
Nasa has admitted it didn't see the space rock coming ahead of a near-miss on Sunday that took it within 1,830 miles (2,950km) of our planet
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That's more than 130 times closer to Earth than the Moon (230,000 miles), or less than the distance between Los Angeles and New York City (2,400 miles).
"The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the Sun," Nasa's Dr Paul Chodas told . "We didn't see it coming."
The Palomar Observatory in California , now known as 2020 QG, six hours after it flew over the southern Indian Ocean at 5:08am BST (12:08am ET) on August 16.
At between 6 feet (2m) and 18 feet (5.5m) wide – a little larger than the average sedan – the object posed no threat to Earth.
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NASA has been tasked with finding 90 per cent of rocks that pose a significant threat to Earth.
Those "killer" asteroids are typically 460 feet across (140m) or bigger and are easy to spot from a distance.
QG's size and speed – roughly 27,000mph (43,000kph) – were calculated using images captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
Nasa now using the Moon as a giant space MIRROR to spot alien life lurking in nearby galaxies
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