NASA Asteroid Tracker: 750-Foot Asteroid Approaching Earth This Week

NASA is monitoring a massive asteroid that’s expected to zip past Earth this week. According to the space agency, the asteroid that’s as tall as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge will approach the planet on May 30.

Named Asteroid 2011 HP, the object has a diameter of about 328 to 754 feet, making it twice as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza. It is expected to fly past Earth on May 30 at around 6:48 am EST. During this time, the asteroid is expected to reach speeds of up to 18,850 miles per hour, according to Express.

Classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO), 2011 HP is known to orbit near the Sun and between Mars and Jupiter. Like other NEOs, the asteroid orbits the Sun from a distance that’s less than 1.3 astronomical units, which is about 120 million miles. This is greater than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, which is around 93 million miles.

Within the next few days, the asteroid’s orbital distance will grow significantly less at approximately 0.03 astronomical units, which will put 2011 HP at about 2.92 million miles from Earth.

2011 HP is the latest asteroid to approach Earth this month. On May 25, an asteroid dragging its own moon flew past Earth. Dubbed as the 1999 KW4, the asteroid has a width of about 0.8 miles while its moon was around 0.35 miles long, Space.com reported.

The two space objects glided about 3.2 million miles from the Earth’s surface. Despite flying close to the planet, NASA was unable to carry out a mission on 1999 KW4 because it was flying at a steep angle.

NASA explained that since NEOs orbit the Sun, some asteroids such as the 2011 HP and 1999 KW4 will eventually fly close to Earth. Although the nature of these asteroids may seem terrifying, they do not pose any form of threat to Earth since they are still flying considerably far from the planet’s surface. Also, if there’s an asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth, various departments such as NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies and Near-Earth Observations Program will be able to detect them and carry out precautionary steps to prevent potential disasters.