Asteroid NN3 to pass extremely close to Earth TODAY, all you need to know

Asteroid 2019 NN3 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.83 LD / 0.00214 AU (320 139 km / 198 925 miles) today.  The asteroid is estimated to be between 35m to 77m in length. It was first observed at ATLAS-MLO, Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii on July 7, 2019.

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) - pass the Earth on a regular basis but this asteroid will make an exceptionally close flyby, according to reports.

“The same as 2019 MB4, this object belongs to the Amor group of asteroids  - the orbital perihelion of these objects is close to, but greater than, the orbital aphelion of Earth, with most Amors crossing the orbit of Mars,” according to The Sky Watchers.

On December 18 last year, a large meteoroid was exploded over the Bering Sea, however, it went unnoticed due to the remote location. According to the NASA, the explosion of meteoroid unleashed around 173 kilotons of energy, more than 10 times that of the atomic bomb blast over Hiroshima in World War II. Also, it was the most powerful explosion in the atmosphere since the fireball that burst over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013. That was 440 kilotons and left 1,500 people injured, mostly from glass flying out of smashed windows.

Where did asteroids come from?

Asteroids are left over from the formation of our solar system. Our solar system began about 4.6 billion years ago when a big cloud of gas and dust collapsed. When this happened, most of the material fell to the centre of the cloud and formed the sun.

Some of the condensing dust in the cloud became planets. The objects in the asteroid belt never had the chance to be incorporated into planets. They are leftovers from that time long ago when planets formed.