Potentially hazardous giant asteroid to zoom past Earth on Friday

Washington, Aug 11

A "potentially hazardous" giant asteroid is likely to come within about 4.3 million km of Earth on Friday, according to NASA. The asteroid, named 2015 FF, has an estimated diameter between 13 and 28 metres, according to NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

It will zoom past the Earth at a speed of about 33,012 km/h, Live Science reported.

NASA defines any space object that comes within 193 million km of Earth as a "near-Earth object" and any fast-moving object within 7.5 million km as "potentially hazardous."

NASA has estimated the trajectories of all the near-Earth objects beyond the end of the century. Currently the Earth faces no known danger from an apocalyptic asteroid collision for at least the next 100 years.

Several space agencies are already working on ways to possibly deflect asteroids flying straight at Earth.

Last November. NASA launched a spacecraft as a part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, which plans to redirect a nonhazardous asteroid by ramming it off course.

China is also in the early planning stages of an asteroid-redirect mission. By slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu, the country says it would be able to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact with Earth, the report said.

--IANS