A large asteroid is about to get too close to the Earth today. Meet Asteroid 2025 DM7. NASA has it that the space rock will get uncomfortably close to the Earth and in fact, just narrowly avoid hitting it. The closest Earth approach is going to be on Mar. 4, 2025, as per the US agency, which tracks asteroids through the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and also supports its Planetary Defense Coordination Office in making impact hazard assessments.
The concerning part about this 42-foot asteroid, which is about the size of a bus, is the fact that it will just about miss the Earth. It will get as close as 294,000 miles to Earth. To put things in perspective, the moon is just about 239,000 miles away from our planet!
And what is more, this asteroid is travelling at an amazing speed. NASA's Small-Body Database Lookup says it is speeding along at 15825 miles per hour. It has been classified as an asteroid belonging to the Aten group and dubbed as a near-Earth object (NEO).
Fortunately, it is expected to flyby at this distance, says NASA. But even though it may go back into the darkness of the cosmos, the asteroid will return within years. It is expected to make another close Earth approach on Mar. 1, 2030.
What makes asteroids dangerous is the potential destructive power they have. In fact, even the speed at which they travel, adds to the kinetic force they carry making things even more frightening.
NASA has a number of telescopes and spacecraft on Earth and in space to keep tabs on these asteroids. In fact, new ones are found all the time. But they are very hard to find and many are missed. Even the best telescopes find it hard to locate asteroids if they come from the direction of the Sun because of the blinding sunlight. And that is why, astronomers are caught unawares by hidden asteroids that are seen at the last moment. Such asteroids are difficult to deal with if they threaten Earth as the time period to deflect them or otherwise destroy them will not be available to space agencies like NASA.
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