ROCKY HORROR
Huge 164-foot asteroid could crash into Earth THIS YEAR at 27,400mph and ‘flatten area bigger than London’, space agency warns
A HUGE asteroid will be soaring close to Earth this September and there is a slim chance that it could hit us.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has listed the asteroid as the fourth most concerning object on its top 10 list of Space objects that have a non-zero chance of crashing into our planet.
2
The asteroid is called 2006 QV89 and it is currently travelling at around 27,400 miles per hour.
Scientists think that it is has a a one in 7,299 chance of hitting Earth.
If the impact does happen then it will occur on September 9 later this year and it's only half the size of the meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013, which shattered windows and injured 1,500 people.
Current predictions state that the asteroid will pass Earth at a distance of over 4.2 million miles but the ESA thinks there is a one hundredth of 1% chance that this prediction is wrong.
2
The diameter of the asteroid is up to 164 feet, which is slightly bigger than the Tunguska meteorite that smashed into Earth in 1908.
The Tunguska impact flattened an area bigger than London so 2006 QV89 could be capable of much more as it is 34 feet wider in diameter.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
TOP STORIES IN SCIENCE
In other news, human civilisation ‘will collapse by 2050’ and intelligent life could be ‘annihilated’, shock paper warns.
A newly found hellish world dubbed ‘The Forbidden Planet’ would melt a human in under a second.
And, a bizarre plot to move Earth by ‘slingshotting asteroids’ at us could prevent fiery apocalypse.
Do you worry about asteroid impacts? Let us know in the comets...
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
UK company will scatter your ashes in space for less than £1000, watch the video to see how they do it
Topics