New Delhi:
Three new asteroids are heading towards Earth and the NASA is keeping an eye on them. The asteroids are likely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere and explode mid-air if they end up on a collision course with the planet, according to reports. According to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the first asteroid that’s set to approach Earth on Tuesday is called 2019 SE8. It has a diameter of just 82 feet but it is travelling through space at the speed of 51,000 miles per hour. If it collides with the Earth, it may cause a major destruction.
The second asteroid has a code name of 2019 SD8. It is a celestial body with a diameter of just 22 feet. It has a speed of 24,000 miles per hour.
The third asteroid is 43 feet across and is travelling with a speed of 23,000 miles per hour.
Hundreds of space rocks fall on the earth daily. But the earth's atmosphere completely burns them before they strike the surface. This, however, may not happen in case of huge asteroids and they may collide with the Earth.
Meanwhile, an asteroid dubbed as '2018 FK5' was to make a close approach to the Earth on October. The NASA expects Asteroid FK5 to make an appearance around 10.56 pm UTC. During this rock will shoot by at speeds of around 10.48km per second or 23,443mph (37,728kph). The asteroid determined to be a so-called Near-Earth Object or NEO was first observed flying around the solar system on March 28, 2018.
The NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth. Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
Asteroid impact avoidance comprises a number of methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) could be diverted, preventing destructive impact events. A sufficiently large impact by an asteroid or other NEOs would cause, depending on its impact location, massive tsunamis, multiple firestorms and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of placing large quantities of pulverized rock dust, and other debris, into the stratosphere.
