Earth was recently on the verge of being hit by a newly-discovered asteroid. Yes, you read it right. An asteroid shot towards our planet and exploded after hitting its atmosphere on July 22 above the Caribbean. Interestingly, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) admitted that it did not know that the asteroid - known as 2019 MO - was coming. This underlines the need for a more strict vigil on the sky.
“When first spotted, 2019 MO was about 310,000 miles (500,000 kilometers) from Earth - farther out than the orbit of our Moon. This was roughly the equivalent of spotting something the size of a gnat from a distance of 310 miles (500 kilometres),” NASA said.
“The body had been spotted only four times in just under half an hour, which was not enough information to determine where the object came from or exactly where it was headed,” said Davide Farnocchia, a scientist at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies.
According to reports, a car-sized asteroid slams into the Earth's atmosphere about once in a year. On the other hand, an asteroid large enough to threaten the existence of life on Earth arrives once in every few million years. Over 7 lakh asteroids that have been found in space. Out of 7 lakh asteroids, at least five asteroids will come dangerously close to the Earth this year. If these asteroids hit the Earth, humans will extinct.
Meanwhile, five supermassive asteroids - Asteroid 2019 GT 3, Asteroid 2010 CO1, Asteroid 2000 QW7, Asteroid 2019 RC and Asteroid 1998 FF14 - will approach towards Earth this month.
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