Gigantic Asteroid '2014 JO25' is Heading to Earth: NASA

By Jacques Strauss, | April 12, 2017

 An asteroid is heading towards Earth, according to NASA. (YouTube)

An asteroid is heading towards Earth, according to NASA. (YouTube)

A huge asteroid is heading towards Earth, according to NASA. The massive space rock measures about 2,000 feet in length.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has confirmed that our planet will have a close encounter with a gigantic space rock dubbed as "Asteroid 2014 JO25." The asteroid was first discovered few year back by astronomers working with the Catalina Sky Survey, according to the Daily Star.

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The 2014 JO25 would be the closest asteroid to come near our planet in the past 400 years. Despite its size almost being equal to 40 double-decker buses, there is still less room for worry. According to experts, no collision will happen as the space rock will be roughly 1.8 million kilometres away from us at its closest approach.

"Although there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size. This upcoming close approach is the closest by any known asteroid of this size, or larger, since asteroid Toutatis, a 3.1-mile (five-kilometer) asteroid, which approached within about four lunar distances in September 2004," NASA stated, according to Gizmodo.

Experts estimate that the space rock will fly by our planet on April 19. Star gazers will have a visual of the said extra-terrestrial object as it will be very reflective. Such reflective qualities would make it twice as bright as the moon, but experts advise star gazers to use a decent telescope to look at it.

This would not be the first time and the last time that an asteroid will pass by Earth. That is why super powers like the United States have been preparing for the worse to come.

To defend against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a near-Earth object impact event, a National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy document has been drawn. It is the product of consultations with space experts with hopes of responding efficiently to emergency situations.

See some near-Earth objects that almost clashed with our planet in the video below:


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