NASA Asteroid Tracker Warns 2 NEOs To Zip Past Earth On Wednesday

NASA is currently monitoring two Earth-crossing asteroids that are headed towards the planet. According to the agency, the natural orbit of these asteroids occasionally intersects with that of Earth.

The first asteroid that will enter Earth’s neighborhood tomorrow has been identified by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) as 2019 UM13. As indicated in the agency’s database, this asteroid is currently flying towards Earth at a speed of over 13,000 miles per hour.

CNEOS estimated that this asteroid is about 92 feet wide, making it slightly longer than the distance between baseball bases.

The second asteroid that will approach Earth on Wednesday is called 2019 VR1. Although this asteroid is a bit smaller than 2019 UM13 with a diameter of 79 feet, it is traveling at a much faster speed of almost 21,000 miles per hour.

According to CNEOS, 2019 UM13 and 2019 VR1 are both classified as Apollo asteroids. This means that their natural orbit occasionally crosses the path of Earth as it travels around the Sun. If their Earth-crossing orbits bring them to a collision course with the planet, these two asteroids will most likely not cause an impact event.

Instead, these asteroids will probably burn up in the atmosphere and explode in the sky before reaching the ground. Due to their size, the energy released from the explosions could be powerful enough to affect structures and people on the ground, similar to what happened in Russia’s Chelyabinsk Oblast region in 2013.

During that time, an asteroid that was about 66 feet wide detonated over the city. The mid-air explosion damaged about 7,000 buildings on the ground and injured around 1,500 people.

Fortunately, CNEOS noted that 2019 UM13 and 2019 VR1 are not in danger of hitting Earth on their upcoming visit. 2019 UM13 is expected to fly past Earth on Nov. 6 at 8:38 am EST from a distance of about 0.02956 astronomical units or 2.7 million miles away.

2019 VR1, on the other hand, will approach Earth on Nov. 6 at 3:44 p.m. EST. During this time, the asteroid will be about 0.00753 astronomical units or roughly 700,000 miles from the planet.