FP TrendingNov 27, 2020 16:54:54 IST
An asteroid that is more than 800m high and over 500m wide is set to race past Earth on 29 November at a speed of 90,000km/h. The asteroid 2000 WO107 is as tall as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and is expected to pass the planet at around 9.09 pm (AETD) on Sunday.
And contrary to reports that an asteroid the size of the world’s largest building is hurtling toward Earth, Asteroid 153201 or (2000 WO107) will actually miss the blue planet by nearly 2.7 million miles.
The asteroid is a near earth asteroid but will only fly past without causing any damage. Image credit: State Farm/Flickr
Classified as a Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA), the 153201 is an Aten-class Asteroid. NASA JPL has classified it as a ‘Potentially Hazardous Asteroid’ due to its predicted close pass with Earth.
The asteroid orbits the sun every 318 days coming as close as o.20 AU and going as far as 1.62 AU from the sun in an orbit that is highly elliptical. The asteroid is larger than 97 percent of asteroids and its spectral type None indicates that it likely contains nickel, iron and cobalt.
Since 2000 WO107’s orbit is 0.00 AU from Earth’s orbit at its closest point, it means that the orbit irrelatively close to the Earth’s one. The asteroid has 28 close approaches predicted in the coming decades.
It was last officially observed on 13 January 2018 and after 29 November, it is again supposed to pass by Earth closely on 6 February 2031.
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