56-foot asteroid hurtling toward Earth TODAY; NASA issues warning

While normally one or two asteroids fly past Earth every day, as many as 4 asteroids came close to Earth yesterday! Another asteroid is on its way to Earth today and it’s a big one. This asteroid has tremendous destructive potential due to its sheer size and speed, and could potentially cause destruction if it strays slightly from its path. To track such asteroids, NASA uses the repurposed NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer to act as a research telescope and scan the sky for Near-Earth Objects. The space agency then uses its ground radar to collect accurate data about the asteroid’s path and its characteristics.

Asteroid 2022 UN21 Important Details

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has issued a warning against an asteroid named Asteroid 2022 UN21. The 56-foot-wide asteroid is expected to fly past Earth today, Nov. 7, at a distance of 3 million kilometers. The asteroid is already on its way to Earth, traveling at a staggering 41940 kilometers per hour, which is much faster than a rocket!

According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2022 UN21 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was discovered just a few days ago on October 28. It takes this asteroid 868 days to complete a journey around the sun, with its maximum distance from the sun being 400 million kilometers and the closest distance being 133 million kilometers.

NASA’s Program to Observe and Categorize Asteroids

NASA has established a Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), managed in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in WashingtonDC The PDCO ensures the early detection of potentially dangerous objects (PHOs) – asteroids and Come eat whose orbits are expected to bring within 0.05 astronomical units of Soil (5 million miles or 8 million kilometers) and of a size large enough to reach the Earth’s surface – that is, greater than about 30 to 50 meters.