As technology gets advanced day by day, NASA, the United States space agency is spotting more and more near-earth objects that may pose a potential danger to the earth in the future. The recent addition to this list of asteroids is 2019 SR8 which will make its close approach with the earth on October 16, 2019.
As per the initial analysis, this asteroid measures somewhere between 20 meters to 44 meters in diameter. If the asteroid's size falls at the higher end of this estimate, it would be roughly the same size as London's iconic Nelson's Column.
The asteroid is now barrelling towards space at a neck-breaking speed of 21,966 miles per hour, and current calculations reveal that it would safely zip past earth at a distance of three million miles. Even though three million miles is a huge figure in human terms, it is a very short distance in astronomical standards considering the vastness of the universe.
Even though the chances of this asteroid hitting the planet are very low, a small change in its trajectory could result in a mid-air collision that could cause catastrophic results, but not on a global scale.
A few months back, Dr Iain McDonald, a top space scientist had claimed that earth will face a doomsday-like scenario following a dreaded asteroid hit in the future. As per McDonald, devastating asteroid hits are not confined to the past, and it may happen in the future too. Popular American physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson also shares similar view, and he believes that a doomsday asteroid will hit the earth one day or the other.
Meanwhile, NASA is busy developing its planetary defense weapon to protect the earth from future asteroid hits. In this planetary protection mission, the United States space agency is apparently planning to hit rogue space bodies approaching the earth using a giant spacecraft, so that their original trajectory will get deviated.
