NASA is keeping an eye on a large space rock that’s set to make a close approach to Earth.
Asteroid 2023 HT4 is expected to shoot past us on May 12.
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Its size, speed, and distance have earned it a spot on Nasa’s NEO Earth Close Approaches list.
That’s a table full of space rocks that need to be kept under investigation.
The US space agency estimates that Asteroid 2023 HT4 is up to 426.5 feet wide.
That makes it significantly larger than the Statue of Liberty.
New York’s famous landmark stands at 305 feet when you include the base and 151 feet when you only include the female figure.
An asteroid of that size could do some serious damage if it were to collide with Earth.
That’s why if an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles and is larger than a certain size, it’s considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.
The huge asteroid passing on May 12 is expected to stay about 3.8 million miles away from us.
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That may sound pretty far away but in the grand scheme of space, this isn’t a large distance at all.
It’s estimated that the large asteroid will shoot past us safely at more than 19,000 miles per hour.
PLANS TO SAVE EARTH FROM ASTEROIDS
Some experts are worried that Earth isn’t yet ready to defend itself from potentially deadly asteroids.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk once sparked concern by tweeting: “a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense.”
Nasa is looking into some defense methods though.
That’s why it launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission last year.
This experiment proved that Nasa was able to alert the orbit of an asteroid called Dimorphos.
