NASA has announced that a giant space rock will approach our planet next week.
According to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the asteroid known as 2021 KT1 will pass Earth at its closest distance at 9:24 p.m. on June 1, Hanoi time. At that time, it was about 7.24 million km away from us and was traveling at a speed of over 64,000 km / h, almost 20 times faster than bullets fired from a rifle.
With an estimated diameter of up to 300 meters, 2021 KT1 is larger than the Eiffel Tower and is equivalent to three rugby fields combined. This huge space rock is classified by NASA as a “dangerous asteroid” because it has the potential to collide with our planet in the future. At that time, the object can cause disaster for mankind.
CNEOS currently tracks around 26,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEOs), 1,000 of which are over 1 km in diameter, but like 2021 KT1, they are less likely to crash into Earth.
“We shouldn’t worry too much about the impact of an asteroid or a comet. The threat from these space objects is actually much less than the threat of a car crash or disease,” he said. CNEOS pointed out in a press release.
While the likelihood of a collision is extremely low, NASA has been actively monitoring NEO over the years, with the goal of predicting any potential impact on Earth before it occurs. In such a case, scientists would try to deflect the asteroid by launching rockets or spacecraft.
