The massive rock is believed to be ten storeys high and will skim past the planet at 14,743 miles per hour in the early hours of Christmas Eve, according to NASA
NASA has issued a warning about a colossal Christmas Eve asteroid due to make a close encounter with Earth tonight.
The celestial body, comparable in size to a ten-story building, is expected to hurtle past our planet at a staggering speed of 14,743 miles per hour. NASA’s Eyes on Asteroids tool says the space rock, dubbed 2024 NX1, measures an average estimated diameter of 47.42 metres.
As of 10.15am this morning, the asteroid was recorded to be 1.51 astronomical units from Earth, with one AU equating to 92,955,807 miles. The asteroid will reach its nearest point to Earth at 02.56 am GMT during the early hours of Christmas Eve.
NASA classifies Near-Earth objects as asteroids and comets whose orbits come within 120 million miles (195 million kilometers) of the Sun, allowing them to pass through the vicinity of Earth’s orbit. The agency said: “Most near-Earth objects are asteroids that range in size from about 10 feet (a few meters) to nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers) across.
“The orbit of each object is computed by finding the elliptical path through space that best fits all the available observations, which often span many orbits over many years or decades. As more observations are made, the accuracy of an object’s orbit improves dramatically, and it becomes possible to predict where an object will be years or even decades into the future – and whether it could come close to Earth.”
Jess Lee, an astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, shared: “It will be very far away, around 18 times further away from the Earth than the Moon is, and so with this predicted path won’t come close enough to hit the Earth.”
For those keen on spotting asteroids, the University of Arizona suggests under the darkest skies, you might catch a glimpse of the largest asteroids with the naked eye. However, to spot the smaller ones, you’ll need a telescope, ideally with an aperture of at least eight inches and fitted with an astronomy-imaging camera. The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory offers tips, such as: “Take multiple photographs of a patch of sky over 60 minutes and then quickly flip through those images one after the other, looking for bits of light in motion.
“Stars will appear stationary, but asteroids, satellites, comets and other bits of space debris will seem to move. Try to photograph your asteroid over several nights to collect information on its orbital path.”