A GIGANTIC asteroid is making its way towards Earth and Nasa has labelled it as “potentially hazardous.”
The US space agency expects the large space rock to shoot past us tomorrow at a “close” distance and you should be able to watch it live.
Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) is said to be up to 4,265 feet wide.
That makes it almost three times as big as the Empire State Building, but the good news is, it’s not expected to hit Earth.
Space fans should be able to watch the asteroid as it shoots past Earth thanks to the The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0.
The live feed will start at 10pm ET on March 4 (3am GMT March 5).
You can also track Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) virtually at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Small-Body Database Lookup website.
Read our Asteroid 138971 live blog for the latest news and updates…
What would happen if an asteroid hit Earth?
Depending on the size of the space rock, an asteroid impact on the Earth could be an extinction-level event, and researchers have created simulations to see just how bad it could be.
Not all asteroids would mean the end of humanity and, in fact, a space rock would have to be pretty large to kill us all.
If an asteroid the size of the one that likely killed the dinosaurs hit Earth today, things would instantly change due to the force of the impact and its knock-on effect on the environment.
NEO mission
Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.
If the agency does so, it will finally have a spacecraft dedicated only to hunting asteroids.
It’s hoped that the NEO Surveyor craft will find 90 percent of asteroids that are 460 feet or larger within the first decade of its mission.
NEO mission
Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.
If the agency does so, it will finally have a spacecraft dedicated only to hunting asteroids.
It’s hoped that the NEO Surveyor craft will find 90 percent of asteroids that are 460 feet or larger within the first decade of its mission.
Nasa monitors thousands of asteroids
Nasa has its eye on nearly 28,000 known near-Earth asteroids, and discoveries of new asteroids are said to go up by their thousands each year.
On that note, Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.
Nasa upgrades asteroid software, part four
Previously, scientists had to manually do calculations to try and work out the Yarkovsky effect and its impact on an asteroid’s path.
The hope is that the software can also help Nasa spot any potentially hazardous asteroids it may have missed.
Nasa upgrades asteroid software, part three
The Sentry-II software will finally let scientists take the Yarkovsky effect into account when they’re trying to figure out if an asteroid is going to hit Earth.
This was something the original software, called Sentry, couldn’t do.
Davide Farnocchia, a JPL navigation engineer, said: “The fact that Sentry couldn’t automatically handle the Yarkovsky effect was a limitation.”
Nasa upgrades asteroid software, continued
Nasa will be upgrading its 20-year-old software with a new algorithm called Sentry-II, which will periodically scan a table of known potentially hazardous asteroids and their orbits.
Sentry-II will then calculate if any of the asteroids on the table or added to the table have a risk of hitting Earth.
The new system will be taking into account something called the Yarkovsky effect, which refers to when an asteroid absorbs sunlight and emits it as heat.
Nasa upgrades asteroid software
NASA has upgraded its asteroid hazard software to better detect potentially dangerous space rocks.
The US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) uses a special type of software to assess potentially hazardous asteroids that could slam into Earth.
There’s no known imminent “doomsday asteroid” on its way but astronomers check the sky often just as a precaution.
What are people saying about the asteroid?
Along with many Twitter users promoting the fact that Asteroid 138971 will be viewable via Zoom, some others are making light of the situation.
One user wrote: “me years ago: ‘I need some solid motivator to finally work harder and faster on my personal projects. A big screaming timer. An asteroid. A nuclear threat’
“me now to me years ago: “hate to tell you but that also doesn’t work”
Saving Earth from asteroids, continued
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 hit a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September with the ultimate aim of moving it off course.
Saving 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 when he tweeted: “a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense.”
Nasa is looking into having some defense methods set up, however.
It recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
Rare occurrence
The asteroid won’t come within around 3 million miles again until 2043.
So, space fans should try to watch the asteroid as it shoots past Earth thanks to the The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0, or they won’t get another chance to spot it anytime soon.
How fast is the asteroid?
Nasa thinks Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) will fly by Earth at around 27,000 miles per hour in the early hours of March 4.
That means it will be traveling 18 times faster than a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter does at full speed.
‘Potentially hazardous’
Any fast-moving space object that comes within 4.65million miles is considered to be “potentially hazardous” by cautious space organizations, and the asteroid is expected to fly by Earth on March 4 from an estimated distance of 3million miles away.
One small change to the trajectories of any NEOs could spell disaster for Earth.
Nasa thinks Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) will speed past Earth at around 27,000 miles per hour in the early hours of that day.
What is a NEO?
Nasa considers anything passing near Earth’s orbit a Near-Earth Object (NEO).
Thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet.
How close will the asteroid get?
Asteroid 138971 should shoot past us on March 4 from an estimated distance of 3million miles away.
A few million miles might sound pretty far away, but it’s actually quite close in terms of space.
By comparison, the Moon is only about 238,900 miles from Earth.
Will the asteroid hit Earth?
The good news is, Asteroid 138971 is not expected to hit Earth.
An asteroid of this size would do some serious damage to the planet.
Empire State asteroid
Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) is said to be up to 4,265 feet wide, making it almost three times as big as the Empire State Building.
The Empire State Building stands at around 1,453 feet tall, so it would pale in comparison to Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21).
Passing ‘close’ to Earth
Asteroid 138971 is making its way towards Earth and Nasa has labeled it as “potentially hazardous.”
The US space agency expects the large space rock to shoot past us at a “close” distance.
Tracking the asteroid
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Small-Body Database Lookup website also allows you to remotely follow Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21).
The asteroid will not approach within 3million miles of Earth again until 2043.
Watch Asteroid 138971 live
The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 should allow space enthusiasts to observe the asteroid as it passes by Earth.
On March 4, the live stream will begin at 10pm ET (3am GMT March 5).
Largest asteroids: 52 Europa
With a diameter of roughly 300 kilometers/186 miles, asteroid 52 Europa is the eighth biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt by volume.
Named after Europa, a Zeus conquest in Greek mythology, it was found by Herman Goldschmidt from his Paris balcony in 1858.
The asteroid is classed as a dark C-type asteroid, which means it has a substantial quantity of carbon on its surface.
As a result, 52 Europa has a dark surface that reflects just a limited quantity of light.
Largest asteroids: Interamnia
Interamnia has a diameter of 217.5 miles and circles the sun once every 1,950 days, or 5.34 years.
Because of its distance from Earth, it is not believed feasible to investigate Interamnia.
Largest asteroids: Hygeia
With a diameter of 270 miles, Hygiea is ranked fourth-largest.
It is a large asteroid in the main belt, but due to its almost spherical form, it may soon be classified as a dwarf planet.
It will be the tiniest dwarf planet in our solar system if it achieves this status.
The asteroid was discovered in 1849 by astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.
Hygiea’s orbit does not bring it close to Earth, hence it is not considered potentially dangerous.
Largest asteroids: Pallas
Pallas was discovered in 1802 and named after the Greek goddess of wisdom.
It has a diameter of around 318 miles and accounts for about 7 percent of the asteroid belt’s total mass.
Pallas’ orbit, unlike those of other asteroids, is severely inclined at 34.8 degrees, making it difficult to analyze.