Subscribe

0

Assam Top Stories

Huge asteroid flies past Earth at super speed

Huge asteroid flies past Earth at super speed

author-image
Pratidin Bureau
New Update
Huge asteroid flies past Earth at super speed

A huge Asteroid called "52768 (1998 OR2)" approachedour planet early Wednesday in a relatively close fly-by thatposed no threat to life on Earth. This is the closest approach to earth passinga distance of 0.42 AU i.e. 62,90,364 km.

Advertisment

That's roughly 16 times the distance between ourplanet and the moon. According to reports, this is the closest for thisasteroid can get to earth in the next 59 years.

A resident of Uzanbazar area in Guwahati, Ranjeev LalBarua, captured the "potentially hazardous asteroid" though his camera on Wednesdayevening.

The two-kilometre-wide asteroid would have been bigenough to do some serious damage, particularly if it hit Earth at its estimatedspeed of 30,578 kilometres (19,000 miles) per hour, or roughly 25 times thespeed of sound.

Advertisment