Recently, there have been a number of super huge asteroids that have flown by Earth, which also comprises of the 2008 KV2 and 2006 QV89. These enormous asteroids have previously made headlines for the risk of them hitting Earth but we always seems to be lucky at that time.
But now, after so many years, there is another gigantic space body which is all set to approach our planet today. Yes, you read it right. A supermassive asteroid named 2019 NJ2 is going to reach the Earth’s closest distance on July 19, at 7:53 PM (ST).
As per to the NASA’s CNEOS, asteroid 2019 NJ2 have estimated diameter of around 207 feet and is very gigantic. It is also currently travelling at a speed of 30,000 miles per hour.
On the other hand, the giant space rock is going to be about 0.03421 astronomical units or approximately 3.1 million miles away from the planet’s centre for the duration of its approach.
Initially, the Asteroid 2019 NJ2 was seen on June 29 this year. CNEOS data also states that the asteroid’s first recorded close approach happened in the year 1952 when the space rock flew close to Venus.
The CNEOS has also anticipated that the asteroid 2019 NJ2 is likely to come back to Earth’s neighbourhood on 7 July 2119. For the duration of that time, 2019 NJ2 is going to be flying at a much farther than distance from Earth as compared to its coming approach. CNEOS further predicted that it will be around 0.25594 astronomical units or about 23.8 million miles away from Earth for the period of its upcoming visit in 2119.
2019 NJ2 is now also joining the list of the last asteroids which are stepping closely to Earth, such as 2006 QV89, 2016 NO56M, RF12 along with 2019 NN3, 2019 MB4, 2019 MT2 in the same week.
Previous year, an enormous meteorite blasted over the Bering Sea in the month of December, which has released 10 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion. On the other hand, the 173-kiloton explosion went unnoticed as it occurred in a remote area.
In a recent report published by spacetelescope.org states, there are about more than 700,000 asteroids in the space. The report further added that asteroids are generally found in an area named the ‘main belt’, between the orbits of Mars as well as Jupiter.
Most of the times, Earth has closely escaped the rage of mass destruction as its gravity pulls close the hazardous space bodies near to our planet. Well, talking about 2019 NJ2, there is no sign of worry for us for the reason that the asteroid 2019 NJ2 is going to zoom past the Earth and we are completely safe.
