Asteroid the size of two Egyptian pyramids will fly close to Earth tomorrow (Photo: Getty Images)
It’s the first time in 100 years that a space rock this large has come this close;
It is estimated that the celestial body is about 228 meters high;
It is predicted to approach at a speed of around 32,000 km/h.
An asteroid nearly twice the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is expected to fly close to Earth this Saturday (20). The celestial body, called 2019 AW13, is estimated to be about 228 meters tall, almost twice the size of the historic monument, which measures 138 meters. It’s the first time in 100 years that a space rock this large has come this close.
It is predicted to approach at a speed of about 20,000 mph and pass at a distance of 13.8 lunar distances, where a lunar distance is the distance between the Earth and the moon.
The last time the asteroid came this close was in 1914, the next time it will be at a similar distance in 2113. Despite its proximity, the celestial body is unlikely to harm Earth.
Most space rocks come from the asteroid belt. The celestial bodies in this area are very different in size, from a few meters to the gigantic Ceres with a diameter of 1000 kilometers. Occasionally, the gravitational interaction pushes asteroids out of their belt and toward the Sun, sometimes putting them in close flight with Earth.
Other asteroids are generally closer to Earth than AW13, but they are rarely as large as this asteroid. Its size and interplanetaryscale proximity classify it as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), which, according to SpaceWeather.com, is a space rock larger than about 100 m and can approach Earth by more than 0.05 AU (5 percent) distance between earth and sun). AW13 will happen at 0.03531 AU or about 3.2 million miles.
The risk of a large asteroid hitting Earth is incredibly small. NASA said there are no asteroids that pose a significant risk of hitting Earth in the next century.