NASA asteroid WARNING: 22,800MPH asteroid barreling on 'Earth approach' TOMORROW

The asteroid, dubbed by NASA Asteroid 2019 AA10, will make a so-called “Earth Close Approach” tomorrow morning around 4.48am GMT (UTC). During its closest approach on Saturday, January 26, the asteroid will reach speeds of around 22,883.6mph (10.23km per second). Compared to the asteroid, the speed of sound is only about 767mph or 1,234km per hour. This incredible flyby comes just two weeks after NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) first observed the space rock.

And if that prospect is not terrifying enough, NASA estimates the asteroid could be up to 150.9ft in diameter.

NASA JPL calculations show Asteroid AA10 measures somewhere in the range of 68.9ft and 150.9ft (21m and 46m) across.

An asteroid this big is about as tall as the world-famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, and 5.5-times longer than a London double-decker bus.

At the smaller end of the estimate, the asteroid is comparable in size to the devastating Chelyabinsk Meteor.

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In 2013, an undetected 65.6ft-wide (20m) asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia, injuring more than 1,500 people.

The asteroid’s airblast damaged more than 7,000 buildings in a wide radius, despite never even touching the ground.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), medium-sized asteroids like AA10 are among the most populous space rocks in the solar system.

The ESA said: “Some asteroids are very large, and would cause enormous destruction if any were to strike Earth, but their estimated population in our Solar System is rather small and more than 90 percent of these are thought to have been discovered. None of these pose any risk of impact.

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“Some are very small − below 10 m diameter − and only a tiny fraction of the estimated population of these have been discovered, but any impact would be harmless.

“The main challenge stems from the population of middle-size objects, ranging from tens to hundreds of metres in diameter.

“There are a lot of these asteroids, and most have not been spotted yet. Any impact from one of these could really do damage to a city or a populated area.”

Thankfully, even at its closest, Asteroid AA10 will miss the Earth by more than one million miles.

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NASA estimates the asteroid will approach Earth from 0.01467 astronomical units (au) or 5.71 Lunar Distances (LD).

One astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun and measures approximately 93 million miles (149.6 million km).

Asteroid AA10 will dramatically shorten this distance down tomorrow to just 1.36 million miles (2.19 million km).

This is the equivalent of 5.71-times the distance between the Moon and the Sun.

Tomorrow’s flyby marks the first and last approach of the asteroid for the foreseeable future.

source: express.co.uk