NASA issued a warning that a giant asteroid is hurtling towards our planet and will make a "close approach" this weekend.
The massive cosmic object is known as 2008 TZ3 and will pass Earth on Sunday at around 6:37 a.m. The enormous space rock routinely passes by our planet every 732 days while it continues to orbit our solar system's Sun.
Massive Space Rock
The object is estimated to be roughly 490 meters wide and about 0.219 kilometers to 0.490 kilometers in diameter. The size of the asteroid is enough to fit in two football pitches and is expected to be as close as 5,740,000 kilometers to Earth.
The asteroid will be at a greater distance compared between the Earth and the Moon, which is roughly 385,000 kilometers. Despite the massive space, scientists have classified 2008 TZ3 as "potentially hazardous" because of its immense size. It is an asteroid that could cause devastating damage to Earth if it hits, as per Metro.
The massive cosmic object is much bigger than New York's Empire State Building, which is already around 440 meters tall. Previous large asteroids don't come close to 2008 TZ3 as the one that caused the 1908 Tunguska event in eastern Siberia was roughly 100 meters to 200 meters in diameter. But the one that wiped out the dinosaurs from existence was roughly 10 kilometers to 15 kilometers wide.
According to Independent, the situation is not the first time that this particular asteroid has passed by our planet in May 2020, 2008 TZ3 was located roughly 2.75 million kilometers from Earth. Scientists do not expect the giant space rock to come back close to our planet until May 2163.
Experts estimate that asteroids of about 100 meters in diameter could generate an explosive force 10 times that of the Jan. 14 volcanic eruption in Tonga if it strikes the Earth. NASA considers any space rock over a certain size to be potentially hazardous if it comes around 7.4 million kilometers from our planet.
Defending Earth
But some scientists are worried that the Earth is not yet prepared to defend itself against a large asteroid if it comes into a collision course. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk previously suggested that a big rock hitting our planet is inevitable and warned that we currently have no means of protecting ourselves.
NASA has begun to look for defense methods, recently launching its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. It is the first-ever mission that is dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by attempting to change a large space rock's motion in space through kinetic impact.
The DART craft that scientists recently developed seeks to slam into a small asteroid known as Dimorphos this September in an attempt to move it off its course. The asteroid is roughly 0.160 kilometers across. Planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Nancy Chabot said that there was no chance this particular mission would make the space rock a danger to Earth, NPR reported.
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