25 April 2023 , 09:46
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Asteroid 2006 HV5, which has been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroid By NASA, is due to pass worryingly close to the Earth tomorrow.
The space rock, which is estimated to be around 1,000 feet in diameter, will pass by the Earth at a distance of 1.5 million miles, or 6.3 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon, travelling at some 38,000mph.
While that’s a comfortable margin, in astronomical terms it’s still classified a close call, the Daily Star reports.
But "that’s plenty of breathing room," according to Dr Susanna Kohler from the American Astronomical Society.
NASA issues chilling asteroid warning that makes end of world three times more likely She added that 2006 HV5 is listed as having a rarity of ‘2’ in NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies’ database.
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That means that, on average, an asteroid of this size or larger will only come this close to Earth once year.
Dr Kohler told Fox News that even though the Eiffel Tower-sized object will be comparatively close to Earth, you’ll still need special equipment to see it.
"Asteroids don’t emit their own visible light, so we primarily observe them via the sunlight that they reflect," she said.
"At its closest approach, 2006 HV5 will still only be bright enough to spot with larger telescopes."
She went on to reassure the public that NASA has a good idea of where the asteroid is, and where it will be, for many years to come: ”With 260 observations on the books for 2006 HV5 spanning the last 17 years, astronomers are able to calculate its orbit — and thus its past, present, and future locations — very precisely," she said.
2006 HV5 is one of over 31,000 near-Earth objects [NEOs] that have been identified so far, with many more believed to be awaiting discovery out in the darkness of space.
Any asteroid that travels within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit is classified as a NEO, and NASA classes them as "potentially hazardous objects” if they come within 4.6 million miles of Earth's orbit and having a diameter greater than 460 feet.
So far, around 2,300 asteroids have been added to the “potentially hazardous” list, and while none of them spell imminent disaster there’s always a risk that their current orbits could be perturbed, sending them on a collision course with our planet.
Fortunately, NASA’s recent DART mission means that for the first time in history, mankind has a defence against these potentially civilisation-ending visitors.