NASA asteroid tracker: 1,100FT monster asteroid is headed on Earth approach TOMORROW

The asteroid, dubbed by NASA Asteroid 2019 AV2, will make a so-called “Earth Close Approach” tomorrow. The news comes after NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) first observed its trajectory on January 3, this year. NASA’s asteroid trackers have now narrowed down the flyby to 8.32pm GMT (UTC) on Friday, February 1. But this is not the first time NASA believes AV2 will skim the planet. Orbital calculations show at least eight previous approaches dating back to 1908.

Further analysis suggests Asteroid AV2 is one of the bigger space rocks to approach the planet this month.

NASA’s JPL estimates AV2 measures somewhere in the range of 492ft to 1,115.5ft (150m to 340m) in diameter.

An asteroid this big is about 40-times longer than a London double-decker bus and is 150-times bigger than a Queen Size bed.

Compared to the Great Pyramid of Giza, the asteroid would appear more than twice as tall – by 203ft (62m).

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Even at the lower end of NASA’s estimate, the space rock is about as tall as Blackpool Tower and St Paul’s Cathedral in the UK.

Asteroid’s this big pack an incredible punch and are said to strike the earth every 1,000 years or so.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), an impact from an asteroid this big could be absolutely lethal.

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

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“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.

“But if they are discovered early enough, their point of impact could be estimated with a good degree of accuracy, and measures could be taken to protect people.”

Thankfully, Asteroid AV2 is not expected to hit the Earth at any point in the near future.

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At its closest tomorrow, the so-called “Near Earth Object” will approach the Earth from 0.04494 astronomical units (au).

Just one astronomical unit measures about 93 million miles (149.6 million km) and describes the distance from the Sun to Earth.

NASA expects AV2 to cut this down tomorrow evening to just 4.1 million miles (6.72 million km).

This is the rough equivalent of 17.49 Lunar Distances (LD) or 17.49-times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth.

“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”

After the asteroid’s safe passage, AV2 will swing by the Earth again on June 2, 2042.

The asteroid will return after that in January 2046, May 2069 and January 2073.

source: express.co.uk