An asteroid bigger than the Eiffel tower will zip past the earth on June 01, NASA has warned. The United States space agency has classified this space rock as a ''potentially hazardous asteroid.'' NASA classifies space rocks as potentially hazardous after analyzing their size and the distance at which they pass planet earth.
More details about this approaching asteroid
NASA has named this asteroid 2021 KT1. According to current speculations, the asteroid will make its close approach with the earth on June 01 at 10.24 AM EDT. At the time of its close approach, this space rock will be almost 4.5 million miles away from the earth. Even though this distance is quite huge for human consciousness, it is a very short distance in cosmic terms, considering the vastness of the universe.
According to NASA, this asteroid will zip past Earth at a speed of 40,000 miles per hour, which is 20 times the speed of a rifle bullet. However, there is no possibility of this asteroid hitting the earth, and it will safely zip past the blue planet.
"No one should be overly concerned about an Earth impact of an asteroid or comet. The threat to any one person from auto accidents, disease, other natural disasters and a variety of other problems is much higher than the threat from Near Earth Objects," said NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
Is earth safe from asteroid hits?
It was around 66 million years ago that a rogue asteroid hit the earth and resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. Since then, no such devastating object had hit the earth, and it has played a crucial role in determining human evolution. However, several top medical experts including Dr. Iain McDonald claim that asteroid hits are not confined to the past and will happen in the future too.
Popular American physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has also shared similar views, and he also believes that devastation will be unleashed on planet earth following an asteroid hit in the future.
