NASA Asteroid 2018 WN warning: 90ft-wide space rock heads towards Earth

The disastrous asteroid, which is larger than a two-story house in size, is expected to skim past Earth. The mammoth asteroid has been named as Asteroid 2018 WN by NASA. The space rock will make its closest appearance to our planet when it zooms past at 11.49am GST. Although NASA astronomers have estimated that the 90-foot asteroid is not on a trajectory to slam into Earth, its destructive potential is nonetheless catastrophic.

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A 65ft-wide space rock was erupted in 2013, injuring more than 1,000 people. The enormous space object landed in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. It led to the destruction of windows, sending shards of glass into victim’s bodies.

According to Dr Matija Cuk, Cornell University in New York, impacts with these smaller asteroids are rare and there are no known instances of them being lethal.

The space expert said: “Concerning smaller meteorites that hit the ground, they are a very low hazard and no human was ever reported being killed by a small meteorite.

“I heard a story that a dog was killed by a meteorite that fell in 1911 in Nakhla, Egypt, and there were also instances of material damage. Still, traffic, pollution and even flashes of lightning are much more dangerous than small meteorites,” he further added.

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Many researchers from the University of Madrid tried to calculate the estimations of this large space object being fragmented into smaller pieces which would further prove risky to our planet. However, the results of this catastrophic collisions cannot be predicted as it is impossible to track their ‘chaotic pre-impact orbits’.

If this enormous asteroid erupts in a trajectory with Earth, the collision would result in enormous damage, leaving no time to evacuate those in the danger line.

As per reports published in UK Daily Express, the researchers wrote: “Asteroids may deliver meteorites to the inner planets when their paths intersect those of the planets at the proper times, leading to an impact.”

“On the Earth, meteorites collected after the observation of bright fireballs have sometimes been tentatively traced back to the near-Earth object population or collisional events in the main asteroid belt.”

In a recent incident, an object named 2018 LA, between nine and 12 ft wide collided Earth within few hours of its detection, as scientists discussed. The asteroid zipped with a terrifying speed of 38,000 mph, leaving behind a streak across the sky over Botswana. It is possible that 2018 LA formed during a massive collision between two or more rocks in the asteroid belt – meaning more meteors are on their way. 

As stated in the daily, the researchers discovered “well over two dozen” asteroids which “resemble” 2018 LA in terms of their size, shape and orientation in space.