5 asteroids are rushing towards Earth

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that up to 5 asteroids will pass by Earth this week, and the event will start from September 6 to September 12. NASA also reassured that these asteroids do not pose any risk of collision.

Through the Asteroid Watch system, NASA said one of the five asteroids is the size of a house, three are the size of an airplane and the remaining asteroid is the size of a bus.

Five asteroids are set to fly close to Earth this week, but NASA has assessed them as not a threat. (Photo: BRG)

The house-sized asteroid, dubbed JA5 by NASA - first discovered in 2021 and measuring nearly 60 feet long - will fly by Earth on September 6 at a distance of 3.2 million miles.

On September 8, two asteroids named QC5 and GE will fly close to Earth at distances of 4 million kilometers and 5.7 million kilometers. According to NASA data, QC5 is about 25 meters in size, about the size of an airplane, while GE is 7.9 meters in size.

Then on September 10, the last two asteroids to fly by Earth are QF6 and QE8, at distances of 2.6 million km and 1.5 million km, respectively. QF6 is 20.7 m in size and QE8 is 51.8 m.

For comparison, the distance between the Moon and Earth is 384,633 km.

According to NASA, asteroids pose no threat to Earth, despite traveling within 7.4 million kilometers of our planet. Part of that is because these asteroids are quite small, the largest being 51.8 meters.

Previously, in March, an asteroid estimated to be 94 meters in size flew past Earth. This was also the largest asteroid to fly close to Earth in the past 10 years.

Thanks to the asteroid observation system, NASA has discovered more than 32,000 near-Earth asteroids as of August 31, 2023. Of these, 853 are larger than 1 km and 10,541 are larger than 140 meters.

According to NASA, in the past year alone, 10 asteroids have flown closer to Earth.

Tra Khanh (Source: ABC News)

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