An asteroid bigger than the Golden Gate Bridge is going to collide with the orbit of the Earth on Saturday, November 14, as per reports. The massive space rock that is being watched by the astronomers at NASA, is on the track to whiz past the Earth at a speed of around 18,000 miles per hour.
As per estimates, the space rock is going to fly past tomorrow at 8.45 am Eastern Standard time, which is 2.45 pm in the UK, and is going to be able to be seen from the Earth. The space research organization has dubbed the space rock 2020 ST1 and it is classed as an Apollo asteroid, which is a space rock that comes in contact with the orbit of the Earth as it passes.
Space Rock to Collide With Earth's Orbit
Despite the trajectory of the asteroid, it is not likely that it is going to cause any issues for the life on the Earth. The space research organization may identify SR1 as a Near-Earth Object but in reality, any comet or asteroid is classed as a NEO if it is coming within the 1.3 astronomical units.
Asteroid ST1 falls inside the category as it is 0.04889 astronomical units from the blue planet, which is similar to a staggering 4,543,254 Earth miles. NASA predicted the rock to be anywhere between 110m and 240m, which is similar to anywhere between 360 and 787ft. For putting it into perspective, the space rock has the potential to be bigger than the Golden Gate Bridge located in San Fransisco, US.
The landmark is 227m above the surface of the San Fransisco Bay and is a 1.7-mile strait that connects the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. At completion in 1937, the suspension of the bridge was appreciated by many. Astronomers are currently tracking around 2,000 asteroids, comets, and other objects that have the potential to affect our planet, some of which are as big as the ST1 asteroid.
