Earth heaved a sigh of relief as a humongous 360-feet wide asteroid shot past Earth at extremely close quarters yesterday! This asteroid named 2022 RB5 marked its closest approach at just 3.11 million miles. It was termed as a potentially hazardous asteroid because of its large size and uncomfortably close approach to Earth. However, asteroid terror is still out there! There is another asteroid named 2005 AZ28 which is zooming towards Earth at a speed of 19522 km per hour. This asteroid also falls under the category of potentially hazardous objects and it is coming tomorrow.

But how does NASA determine if the upcoming asteroid is dangerous for Earth or not? These giant rocks in space, known as asteroids generally travel around the Sun, but can change their paths due to the gravitational force of planets and sometimes even collide with them! To detect the terror of these asteroids in advance, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) keeps an eye on all the near-Earth objects in space.

An asteroid is said to be potentially hazardous on two factors – distance from the Earth and its size. NASA explains that any asteroid that comes within 4.6 million miles or 7.5 million kilometers near to Earth, or if it measures larger than about 150 meters, then it can be termed as a potentially hazardous object. So, does the asteroid 2005 AZ28 pose any danger to Earth?

Asteroid 2005 AZ28 danger

NASA has confirmed that Asteroid 2005 AZ28 measures around 150-foot or 46 meters in size. But it is the close approach towards the Earth which makes it a potential danger to Earth. NASA’s JPL data has informed us that this space rock will come as close as 2.73 million miles to Earth. Hence, NASA listed it as a potentially hazardous asteroid.

Do asteroids hit the Earth?

Of course, they do! You must have heard tales about an infamous Chicxulub asteroid that caused massive destruction on Earth around 66 million years ago. This is the asteroid that ended the era of the dinosaurs. In recent years, small ones have crashed on Earth and some of the bigger ones have caused major damage, as did the asteroid in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. This asteroid was anything between 17 mtr to 20 mtr in size. That’s why NASA keeps an active eye on all such asteroids posing a threat to Earth.