The biggest flyby this year.
In a way, the asteroid will mark the first month anniversary of another big asteroid that zipped past our planet at 23,000 miles an hour on April 28th, last month. For their giant sizes, these asteroids are still small pebbles as compared to the one that is believed to haveTracking"Near-Earth Objects"
This is why NASA tracks more than 29,000 Near-Earth Objects every year. A NEO is any object that comes within a distance of 30 million miles of the Earth's orbit. By NASA's estimates, most of the NEOs are rather small. However, 7335 , the one hurtling in space at 47,200 miles an hour, is larger than 99 percent of the NEOs the space agency tracks.
A stony asteroid, 7335 was first spotted in 1989 at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego, California. The asteroid belongs to the Apollo class, which means it orbits around the Sun and completes an orbit every 861 days or two years and four months. Since the Earth has its own orbit to follow, the asteroid and our home planet luckily do not cross paths that often. On May 27, the two celestial bodies will be 2.5 million miles away from each other. The next time they cross paths, we will all be 33 years older from now. The date for that fly-by is June 23, 2055, but the asteroid will be about 17 million miles away from the Earth.
Nevertheless, NASA classifies 7335 as a potentially hazardous asteroid, meaning if the giant rock were ever to change its trajectory and hit Earth, it could do enormous damage. The human race is well aware of the dangers of such a deviation, and is currently looking for ways to redirect asteroids if we ever find them heading towards us. Last year, we reported that
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant extends outage until May 27Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant is now expected to restart on May 27, four days later than the previous plan and further delaying operations since a fire in 2020, Norwegian gas system manager Gassco said on Sunday.
Read more »
East Bay pets of the week for May 27Area shelters dogs and cats need their “forever” homes.
Read more »
Plan ahead for lane and shoulder restrictions on Interstate 17 between New River and Flagstaff from Monday, May 23, to Friday, May 27
Read more »
TooFab's Week In Celebrity Photos: May 15 - May 21Julia Fox rocks another REVEALING look in cutout leather dress as she stepped out in Los Angeles (via toofab)
Read more »
The Most Mind-Blowing Images Ever Taken of Earth from SpacePhotos of our planet from orbit are cool, but the farther you get from Earth, the more incredible they become.
Read more »