NASA warns of a massive asteroid bigger than the famous London Eye approaching Earth on July 24 – Business Insider India

The space boffins in the United States have named it as Asteroid 2020 ND. The asteroid is also classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) and Near-Earth Object (NEO) by NASA. The asteroid is estimated to be of 120- 260m in diameter. But there isnt anything to worry about as it wont be the asteroids first-time visiting Earth, it has done that at least five times before as per NASA. It maintains an orbit around the Sun that makes it come close to both Earth and Mars every once in a while.

According to NASA, asteroid 2020 ND will be as close as 0.034 astronomical units (5,086,328 kilometres) to our planet and is travelling at a great speed of 48,000 kilometres per hour.

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What are Potentially Hazardous Asteroids? Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroids potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with an Earth Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs, according to NASA.

What are the Near-Earth Objects (NEO)?

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The giant outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) formed from an agglomeration of billions of comets and the leftover bits and pieces from this formation process are the comets we see today. Likewise, todays asteroids are the bits and pieces leftover from the initial agglomeration of the inner planets that include Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, it further added. SEE ALSO: TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro open up lateral hiring as more people walk out the door during the COVID-19 pandemic

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NASA warns of a massive asteroid bigger than the famous London Eye approaching Earth on July 24 - Business Insider India