NASA, the United States space agency has confirmed that an asteroid that has a size of 3280 feet will whiz past Earth on February 15, 2020. Considering the size of this space rock, experts believe that a possible collision will kill millions of people in a slit second.
Asteroid 2002 PZ39: All you need to know
Scientists have named this asteroid 2002 PZ39, and it is apparently screeching across space at an incredible speed of 35,500 miles per hour. At the time of its close approach, this asteroid will miss earth at a distance of 3.58 million miles. As per NASA, any near-earth objects that come within around 4.65 million miles are considered potentially hazardous space rocks.
Even though the chances of a collision are pretty less, space experts claim that a collision with asteroid 2002 PZ39 will unleash power equivalent to the explosion of several nuclear bombs. As per these experts, millions of people will kill in a fraction of second before the victims even know what is actually happening. Soon, fires, earthquakes, and tsunamis will gulp the blue planet causing massive devastation.
Asteroid 2002 PZ39 much bigger than Bennu
Interestingly, asteroid 2002 PZ39 is much bigger than asteroid Bennu, a space rock that poses a possible threat to the existence of life on the earth in the future. Initial analysis revealed that asteroid Bennu is 1680 feet smaller than asteroid 2002 PZ39.
"We believe anything larger than one to two kilometers – one kilometer is a little more than one-half mile could have worldwide effects," says NASA.
As threats from space loom large, data scientist Dave McKee warns that it will not be Bennu, but an unknown asteroid that is not yet discovered that could surprise the planet with an unexpected devastation. Citing the example of the Chelyabinsk meteor explosion that surprised everyone, McKee believes that an unknown asteroid could hit the earth and cause chaos on the planet.
