NASA warns ‘potentially hazardous’ skyscraper-sized asteroid will pass close to Earth next week

A “potentially hazardous” asteroid the size of a skyscraper will approach our planet next week, NASA said.

The asteroid, called 2024 ON, is expected to come within 620,000 miles of Earth’s surface at 10:19 UTC (11:01 GMT) on Tuesday, September 17.

2024 ON is between 721 and 1,575 feet (220 to 480 meters) in diameter — meaning it could be almost as large as the World Trade Center in New York.

When the asteroid passes close to Earth, it will travel at 8.8 kilometers per second or 19,685 miles per hour — nearly 25 times the speed of sound.

The asteroid is considered “potentially hazardous,” although it is not expected to pose a threat to our planet and its inhabitants.

An asteroid is defined as “potentially hazardous” if it is within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65 million miles) of Earth and is larger than 459 feet (140 meters) in diameter.

Although it is more than twice as far from the Moon as it is when it approaches Earth, the asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object (NEO) and is being tracked by the space agency.

“Near-Earth objects are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by gravity from nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter Earth’s vicinity,” NASA said.

Comets are mostly composed of water ice with embedded dust particles, and 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.

“The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is largely due to their status as relatively unchanged debris leftover from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.”

The asteroid, named 2024 ON, is expected to approach Earth at a distance of 620,000 miles at 10:19 UTC (11:01 GMT) on Tuesday (artist’s concept)

NASA lists 2024 ON as One of the upcoming approaches On its online tracker, which collects incoming objects that are getting closer and closer to Earth.

Unfortunately, this asteroid will be too small to be seen with the naked eye, or even with an average telescope.

2024 ON is at most 1,575 feet in diameter, which is actually very small compared to the largest known asteroid, Ceres, which is 580 miles (more than 3 million feet) in diameter.

Asteroids – large rocky pieces left over from collisions during the early solar system – move at high speeds because of the enormous gravity they exert.

Since asteroids orbit the Sun in “elliptical” (rectangular) orbits, they also orbit irregularly, rolling as they move.