A HUGE asteroid has just made a “close approach” to Earth.
Nasa has Asteroid 2022 on its NEO Earth Close Approaches chart and has been watching it.
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The giant space rock measures a staggering 525 feet.
It is almost twice the size of the Statue of Liberty.
New York’s famous landmark stands at 305 feet if you include the base and 151 feet if you include only the female figure.
An asteroid of that size can cause serious damage if it hits the earth.
Fortunately, the large space rock remained just under 1.8 million miles from our planet when it was shot past earlier today, June 17th.
It may sound quite far, but in the grand scheme of space it is not a great distance at all.
That’s why Nasa still labeled it a ‘close approach’.
If an asteroid comes within 4.65 million miles and is over a certain size, it is considered “potentially dangerous” by cautious space agencies.
The asteroid has been spotted moving at about 27,000 miles per hour.
Plans to save Earth from asteroids
Some experts are concerned that the Earth is not yet ready to defend itself against potentially deadly asteroids.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, once raised concerns by tweeting: “a large rock will eventually hit the earth and we currently have no defense.”
However, Nasa is looking at some defense methods.
It recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
Nasa said: “DART is the first mission ever dedicated to the investigation and demonstration of one method of asteroid deflection by altering an asteroid’s motion in space by kinetic impact.”
The DART craft should hit a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September with the aim of moving it off course.