An asteroid larger than the Empire State Building will explode near Earth at 50,000 miles per hour

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An asteroid three times the size of the Empire State Building will pass close to Earth in six days.

The massive space rock, one kilometer wide, will fly past our planet on January 18 at a speed of more than 47,000 miles per hour.

According to NASA, any asteroid 140 meters in diameter or larger could be devastating if it hit Earth – releasing the energy of more than a thousand atomic bombs.

This would be the closest asteroid expected to reach Earth within the next two centuries, but it wouldn’t be close enough to be a cause for concern.

Although an asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object — which represents any asteroid or comet approaching 1.3au astronomical units — the asteroid would be 1.2 million miles from our planet. This is five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

NASA currently monitors about 25,000 NEOs, and is adding approximately 30 new ones each week.

The small telescope should be enough for keen stargazers to catch a glimpse of the fast rocks.

Since the start of the new year, a number of passive asteroids have been released from Earth – including one larger than Big Ben, which walked harmlessly by January 11. Five more asteroids passed during the first week of 2022.

For the most dangerous objects, NASA was preparing for an impact that could wipe out large amounts of life on Earth, but unfortunately, its methods proved to be unsuccessful.

In May 2021, she concluded that catastrophe could not be avoided, even if given six months to prepare.

NASA is also launching a robotic spacecraft on a distant asteroid to prepare to protect the planet from collisions. The Dart mission was launched in November last year and should hit a “little moon” called Dimorphos in September of this year.

The most important factor in such an endeavor is finding it in advance and being willing to change course, said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer.

“We don’t want to be in a situation where an asteroid is heading towards Earth and then we have to test that kind of capability,” he said.

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