Mar 7, 2018
A massive asteroid is all set to fly extremely close to Earth today, at the speed of 14,092 miles per hour. And if the speed isn’t shocking enough – the asteroid is as huge as the Empire State Building.
Dubbed as 2017 VR12, the asteroid is expected to pass within 900,000 miles of Earth around 7:53am (EST) on Wednesday. Its diameter is between 700ft and 1,500ft – making it bigger than the Empire State Building, which is 1,450ft tall.
NASA has labelled the VR12 a ‘potentially hazardous asteroid’ due to the close proximity with Earth. Typically, if asteroids come within 4,600,000 miles of Earth, the space agency labels them as hazardous.
This particular one is scheduled to make its trip past Earth on late Wednesday – at a distance of 897,000 miles – which is three times the distance between our planet and the moon.
However, NASA has also assured that there is no possibility for the 2017 VR12 to collide with Earth. If anything, the agency believes the asteroid could be a perfect target for future aerospace studies.
