A space rock with a diameter between 130-300 meters is on its way to cross the Earth on June 24, as per reports from NASA.
This asteroid is labeled by the agency as a potentially hazardous Near Earth Object (NEO) and it is travelling at an approximate speed of 45,000 kilometers per hour. It is named 2010 NY65 and is expected to cross the earth’s orbit on June 24 at 10.30 IST.
Many fans of sci-fi movies and books get high on spirits when they hear or find in social medias that an asteroid is coming earth’s way. But eventually all that news in the end fails to live up to their expectation because they were just NEOs. An asteroid or comet is termed NEO if its orbit is at approximately 195 million kilometers from the Sun.
However this asteroid – 2010 NY65 is termed as ‘Potentially Hazardous NEO’. In order to qualify for a potentially hazardous NEO, it must come within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth’s orbit and must be 140 meters in size.
2010 NY65 was discovered on July 10, 2010 by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. As per NASA, this asteroid has been rotating near to Earth since 2015, making it a yearly visitor in the month of June. According to the space agency’s report it will be revolving around Earth and Sun till 2022 in its orbit.
The estimated date of making close appearance are 2019 Jun 24, 2020 Jun 24, 2021 Jun 25 and 2022 Jun 26.