A huge asteroid almost the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza will pass by Earth today, NASA has warned.
The 400-foot-long asteroid, scientifically named 2024 JZ, will pass by the planet at a staggering speed of 56,000 mph (90.123) – 65 times faster than a bullet.
But there is no need to go to the doomsday bunker yet, as this asteroid will safely pass by Earth at a distance of 4.2 million km.
While this may sound far off, the asteroid is still classified as a ‘near-Earth object’ (NEO) by NASA.
Dr. Edward Bloomer, senior astronomer at Royal Greenwich Observatory, told MailOnline: ‘Today’s death is not a concern at all, this is not the sort of thing we should be concerned about.’
An asteroid almost the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza will make a close approach to Earth today, although experts say it is completely safe
The asteroid 2024 JZ will pass by Earth today at a speed of 56,000 mph (90.123) – 65 times faster than a bullet (artist’s impression)
NASA writes, “NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been pushed into orbits by the gravity of nearby planets that allow them to enter Earth’s environment.
‘Comets, which consist mainly of water ice with embedded dust grains, originally formed in the cold outer planetary system, while most rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner Solar System between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.’
A NEO is defined as any object that comes within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) (120.8 million miles) of the Sun and therefore within 0.3 AU (27.8 million miles) of Earth’s orbit.
Asteroids are defined as ‘potentially hazardous’ if they are within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65 million miles) of Earth and have a diameter greater than 140 meters (459 feet).
Although 2024 JZ will be at a perfectly safe distance of only 0.028 AU from Earth, this is considered relatively close in astronomical terms.
With a diameter of 120 meters, this asteroid is almost as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza (photo) and larger than Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty (file photo)
There will also be an even bigger miss tonight, when a small asteroid called 2024 JT3 passes within just 12,000 miles (19,300 km) of Earth.
However, Juan Luis Cano, from the ESA’s Planetary Defense Office, assured MailOnline that Earth is ‘absolutely’ safe.
Mr. Cano says there is “no way to hit the Earth.”
He adds: ‘In any case, a 5 to 10 meter object would normally disintegrate in the atmosphere, leaving only a few small meteorites on the ground.’
NEOs are monitored by a network of professional and volunteer astronomers who detect objects passing through the solar system.
Thanks to their efforts, dozens of NEOs are spotted every month and their routes are predicted with a high degree of accuracy.
In fact, large objects like 2024 JZ passing through Earth’s orbit are so routine that the ESA labels this asteroid a “very frequent event.”
The vast majority of these objects burn up in the planet’s atmosphere and are seen by us as shooting stars, rather than hitting the ground.
In fact, each year Earth passes through several dense clouds of debris left behind by comets that produce meteor showers like this month’s Eta Aquariids.
What makes NEOs different from these meteors is that they are large enough to potentially pass through the atmosphere undestroyed.
And while today’s encounter isn’t a problem, Dr. Bloomer says there is a risk of an impact at some point in the future.
“We’re gambling a little bit every day,” he said.
“If 2024 JZ were on course to intercept threats, that would be a big problem because it’s a big old piece of rock that moves quite quickly.”
During the 1908 Tunguska event, an asteroid less than half the size of the 2024 JZ exploded over an area of Siberian forest, flattening 1,300 square kilometers of trees.
Similarly, Dr. Bloomer points out that the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged 7,200 buildings and injured 1,491 people in Russia, was only 20 meters in diameter.
Most worrying was the fact that the Chelyabinsk meteor was previously undetected when it collided with Earth.
As Mr. Cano explains, while there is currently no relevant threat, “the real problem is that there are still a lot of NEOs out there.”
According to NASA, there are 34,914 known NEOs in our solar system (data correct as of May 9)
Fortunately, NASA has already invested in methods to protect the planet from approaching asteroids.
In November 2021, the space agency launched the DART mission that plowed a satellite into the side of Dimorphos, an asteroid about 6.9 million miles (10.9 million km) from Earth.
This test showed that by hitting an asteroid with a small satellite early enough, the small impact could push it into a safe orbit by the time it reaches Earth.
Dr. Bloomer says, “If you can get to it faster and further in advance, you actually have to make a smaller impact to get a bigger deflection over time.
‘Whereas if you have something that you discover only late, you have to make more effort to avert it in time.’
While this mission may have been just a rehearsal, it proved that the planet could be saved with enough advance warning.