NASA has its eye on a large asteroid that’s heading our way.
Asteroid 2007 FF1 could be up to 558 feet wide, making it almost twice the size of the Statue of Liberty.
1
In comparison, the Statue of Liberty stands at 305 feet tall if you include the pedestal.
The large space rock is expected to make its close approach on April 4.
It should come within 1.5million miles of Earth.
That may sound may sound pretty far away but in the grand scheme of space this isn’t a large distance at all, so Nasa has still flagged it as a “close approach”.
If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles and is over a certain size, it’s considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.
Fortunately, Asteroid 2007 FF1 is expected to shoot past us safely at about 44,000 miles per hour.
It’s the largest of four asteroids that are expected to shoot past on the same day.
Plans to save Earth from asteroids
Most read in Tech
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 defence.”
Nasa is looking into to some defence methods though.
It recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
Nasa said: “DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.”
The DART craft should slam into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September with the aim of moving it off course.
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
