NASA discovers killer asteroid larger than Mt Everest on collision course to hit earth in 2027

By Nirmal Narayanan
August 19, 2019 17:05 +08

asteroid collision — Asteroid collision NASA

NASA has discovered a dangerous asteroid that could wipe out half the life on earth by 2027, based on initial analysis carried out by experts at the US space agency. It was revealed that the killer asteroid is larger than the Mount Everest, and is currently traveling at a speed of more than 52,000 miles per hour.

NASA's asteroid-tracking unit has named this rogue space body 4953 (1990 MU), and they claimed that this menace from deep space has a diameter of about six miles. If calculations are right, this giant space body will fly past Earth on numerous occasions within the next couple of years, and it will make its closest approach on June 6, 2027. On this day, this asteroid will come as close as 2.9 million miles away, and this distance is very small in astronomical terms.

Considering the gigantic size of this asteroid, an impact of any kind could cause devastation on a global scale. Experts believe that certain factors in space could actually increase the chances of the earth being hit by this rogue space body. One such factor that could affect the original trajectory of the asteroid is a gravitational keyhole. It should be noted that the gravitational keyhole is an area in space where rogue space bodies get affected by the gravitational pull of nearby planets. If this asteroid passes through this keyhole, there are possibilities that it could plummet right into the earth causing massive devastation.

These radar images of near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon were generated by astronomers at the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory on Dec. 17, 2017. Observations of Phaethon were conducted at Arecibo from Dec.15 through 19, 2017. At time of closest approach on Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. PST (3 p.m. EST, 11 p.m. UTC) the asteroid was about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) away, or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. The encounter is the closest the object will come to Earth until 2093. Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF

A few months ago, Iain McDonald, a top scientist at the Cardiff University's school of earth and ocean sciences had suggested that the earth will face catastrophe due to a doomsday asteroid in the future. According to him, devastating asteroid hits are not confined to the past, and it will happen in the future too.

In order to combat these threats from deep space, NASA is developing a planetary defense weapon that aims to nudge asteroids from their original trajectory. Experts reveal that NASA is planning to hit asteroids using a large spacecraft, and it will help them to change the collision trajectory of the asteroid.