New Delhi:
NASA has detected an Asteroid 2006 QQ23 that may hit Earth next month. The 2006 QQ23 asteroid was first observed on August 21, 2006. The asteroid has a diametre between 254 and 568 metres. “The 2006 QQ23 is expected to move past Earth on August 10, 2019 at a distance of about 0.04977 au (astronomical units) which is rather short in astronomical terms, according to NASA.
Amid this apprehension, the European Space Agency (ESA) asked planetarians not to panic as we are not getting hit by the asteroid this time as well.
According to the study, carried out by the ESA, Asteroid 2006 QQ23 will not smash into the Earth and is only going to perform a flyby on 10 August at about 7:23 am ST. The giant rock is predicted to zoom past the Earth at a distance of 0.04977 AU (astronomical units). However, there is hardly any chance that it will bump into our planet. Earlier, NASA's CNEOS tagged the asteroid as ‘hazardous’, in the view of its trajectory, which could manage to intersect with Earth’s orbit.
There are more than 7 lakh asteroids that have been found in space. Asteroids can bring tsunamis, shock waves and flattening winds that could be catastrophic. Recently, many deadly asteroids including 2019 OK, 2019 OD, 2015 HM10, 2019 OE, 2019 NN3, 2019 MB4, 2019 MT2, 2006 QV89, 2016 NO56M, RF12 and others approached towards the Earth, fortunately did not hit out planet.
