NASA Warning: Massive Asteroid Approaching Earth

New York: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Sunday issued an asteroid warning. A massive aeroplane-sized asteroid is making its way towards Earth and may reach our planet very soon.

The asteroid, named NEO 2022 QP3, will pass by Earth on August 29, at 3.25 am IST.

The 100-foot wide asteroid is expected to come 5.51 million kilometres close to the Earth.

According to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the asteroid is moving at a velocity of 7.93 km per second.

The asteroid has been designated as a ‘potentially hazardous object’ due to its close proximity, according to NASA’s Planetary Defence Coordination Office.

On Saturday, another asteroid — NEO 2022 QQ4 – went past Earth 5.93 million kilometres from our planet at its closest approach. That one was moving at 7.23 km per second, informed CNEOS.

Asteroids are enormous space rocks — left over from the formation of solar system about 4.6 billion years ago – that orbit the sun.

NASA deploys its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft to protect the planet from the rocky fragments.

A spacecraft is launched into an asteroid’s core to deflect it from the original path.