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An asteroid the size of a 50 - storey skyscraper will zoom past Earth Sunday ( July 17 ) , making its closest approach to our planet in nearly 100 years .
The meaty space rock , dub 2022 KY4 , will safely missEarthby about 3.8 million mil ( 6.1 million kilometers ) , or more than 16 times the middling space between Earth and the moonshine , according to NASA . This is considerably farther abroad than theasteroid 2022 NF , which come within 56,000 miles ( 90,000 kilometre ) — or about 23 % the average distance between Earth and themoon — on July 7 .
In this artist’s illustration, an asteroid passes close to Earth.
Asteroid2022 KY4 is about 290 foot ( 88 cadence ) in diameter at its full visible point and is travel at an estimated 16,900 mph ( 27,000 kilometre / h ) — around eight meter as fast as a speeding rifle bullet , according to NASA .
Related : Why are asteroid and comet such uncanny shape ?
The space rock has made several close approaches to Earth before , most recently in 1959 and 1948 . The asteroid wo n’t make another close approach to our satellite until May 2048,NASAcalculated .
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NASA and other space agencies tight monitor thousands of near - Earth object like this one . Even if an asteroid ’s trajectory put it trillion of sea mile from our major planet , there is an highly svelte chance that the asteroid ’s arena could lurch somewhat after interact with thegravityof a larger object , such as a satellite ; even such a petite shift could potentially put an asteroid on a collision course with Earth on a next flyby .
As such , space agencies take planetary vindication very earnestly . In November 2021 , NASA launched an asteroid - deflecting spacecraft shout the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) , which will slam straight into the 525 - foot - wide ( 160 m ) asteroid Dimorphos inautumn2022 . The collision wo n’t put down the asteroid , but it maychange the blank rock candy ’s orbital pathslightly , Live Science previously reported . The foreign mission will help examine the viability of asteroid deflection , should some future asteroid pose an impending risk to our major planet .
in the beginning published on Live Science .
