NASA Asteroid Tracker: 325ft Giant NEO Headed For Earth On Wednesday

NASA has detected a new asteroid that’s currently headed for Earth. According to the agency’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the approaching asteroid is bigger than the Statue of Liberty.

The asteroid, known as 2019 NM4, was first observed on July 8. Not much is known regarding the asteroid except for its current trajectory. It has been categorized as a near-Earth object (NEO). According to NASA, NEOs occasionally approach Earth due to certain gravitational forces in space.

“Near-Earth objects are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighborhood,” NASA said in a statement.

“Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter,” the agency added.

According to the data collected by CNEOS on 2019 NM4, the asteroid is currently traveling at a speed of about 7.90 kilometers per second or almost 18,000 miles per hour. It has an estimated diameter of 325 feet, making it significantly taller than the Statue of Liberty and the Big Ben clock tower in London.

CNEOS predicted that the asteroid will approach Earth on July 10 at 2:06 am ST. During its approach, its closest distance to the planet will be 0.02302 astronomical units or roughly 2.1 million miles away.

Based on CNEOS’s current data on 2019 NM4, Earth is still relatively safe from a major impact event. However, given its overall size and velocity, 2019 NM4 can cause serious damage to Earth if it collides with the planet.

According to the Down2Earth Impact Calculator, which simulates the destruction caused by asteroids, 2019 NM4 will create a crater that’s about 236 feet deep and 1108 feet wide. The explosion from the impact could produce an energy that’s equivalent to almost 6 million tons of TNT.

Based on these figures, 2019 NM4’s simulated impact is more powerful than previous asteroid collision events and can certainly be considered as Earth-ending.