Signs In The
Sun, The Moon and The Stars
Giant asteroid heading to Earth
A giant asteroid weighing 55 million tonnes will just miss the
Earth later this year, Nasa experts have predicted.
Asteroid YU55 will pass close to earth later this year Photo:
ALAMY
By Martin Evans 7:02AM BST 05 May 2011
The Telegraph UK
The rock, which is quarter of a mile across, will pass between our
planet and the moon in November and will be visible with small
telescopes.
Robin Scagell of the Society for Popular Astronomy said: “It’s
rare we get the chance to see an asteroid up close.”
If it were to hit the earth, the asteroid, named YU55, would have
an impact equivalent to 65,000 atom bombs and would leave a crater
more than six miles wide and 2,000ft deep.
Passing by at a distance of just 201,000 miles, the asteroid will
be the largest object ever to approach the earth so close.
Nasa has officially labelled it a Potentially Hazardous Object,
but have stressed there is no danger of impact while on its
current course.
YU55 orbits the sun every 14 years and last passed the earth in
April 2010 at a distance of 1.5 million years.
There are currently 874 near earth asteroids which are considered
to be potentially dangerous.
They are closely monitored and the list is being constantly added
to as astronomers discover new objects in near space.
Scientists estimate that there is usually one large collision with
earth every few hundred thousand years.