Asteroid To Zip Closer Than The Moon: Cause For Concern?

There is something in space right now that has raised concerns amongst the global community recently. A gigantic asteroid roughly the size of India Gate is set to fly by Earth in the upcoming week. According to a report from Science Times, asteroid 2024 MK is located in the constellation Centaurus, approximately six million kilometers away from Earth.

Although the distance is huge the asteroid is estimated to be travelling through space at the speed of 33,732 kmph, which is a very high velocity for an object that size as its impact on the Earth’s surface would have massive implications for life on the planet.

The asteroid is making its closest fly-by in 10 years and will be going by Earth next week. The asteroid is poised to fly past Earth at a distance of 296,119 km which is closer than our moon which is at an average distance of 384,633km.

Currently not visible above the horizon from Greenwich, UK, using long-exposure photography, asteroid 2024 MK will first become observable in the southern hemisphere during its fly-by next week before it reaches its closest point to Earth.

Should You Be Worried?

Well NASA has claimed that there is no chance for the asteroid 2024 MK to hit Earth during its flyby. However, the asteroid is poised to fly by Earth again in the year 2116 and at that point in time, it might have a 0.00000095 chance to make contact with the Earth.

What Will Happen If An Asteroid Hits The Earth?

There are countless asteroids in our solar system and also in space that stretches beyond that, but not all of them are potentially hazardous unless they are within 7.4 million km of Earth and have a diameter of at least 460 feet.

If an asteroid qualifies the above criteria then it has the power to destroy entire cities and give rise to catastrophic geological events in the concerned region. If we increase the size of the asteroid to 650 feet it would then have the power to wipe out an entire small country. Now imagine what an asteroid which is a kilometre in length can do, it would have the power of a million atom bombs going all out at once and result in a mass extinction at a planetary level.

Getting hit by asteroids is not new for Earth we get hit by small asteroids every minute, but it is when the size and velocity of the asteroid increase that causes problems and we have had such mass extinction in history as well when most of the dinosaurs got wiped off the planet because of an asteroid impact.

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