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An asteroid more than 800 meters high and more than 500 meters wide is set to overtake Earth on Sunday at a dizzying speed of 90,000 km / h.
Asteroid 2000 WO107 it is as tall as the tallest building in the world, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, 830m tall, and is expected to pass our planet on Sunday November 29 at around 9:09 pm (AEDT).
Scientists have been following the monstrous space rock since it was discovered in 2000 by astronomers in New Mexico.
NASA has given the asteroid the formal identification of a “near-Earth object” (NEO) because it will be within 1.3 astronomical units of Earth.
An astronomical unit is measured as the distance between the Earth and the Sun, which is close to 150,000,000 km.
The close proximity of the asteroid’s trajectory also means that it has been classified as a “potentially dangerous asteroid” by the authorities.
Fortunately for all of us, the asteroid is expected to pass 4,302,775 km from Earth.
While it seems far enough away not to worry, its classification as NEO means NASA will apply its national strategy for preparing near-Earth objects and worst-case scenario action plan.
According to experts, this is not the first (or last) time that asteroid 2000 WO107 has had close contact with Earth.
“The 2000 WO107 orbits the sun every 318 days (0.87 years), approaching 0.20 AU and coming up to 1.62 AU from the sun,” noted an article from spacereference.org.
“Its orbit is highly elliptical. 2000 WO107 has a diameter of about 0.5 kilometers, making it small in absolute terms, but about 97% larger than asteroids, comparable in size to the Golden Gate Bridge. “
What is an asteroid?
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) defines asteroids as “rocky, airless remnants left by the first formation of our solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.”
The space authority believes there are approximately 1,031,488 to date.
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