Giant Asteroids: According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 5 large asteroids were moving toward Earth yesterday. Do we have to worry? An asteroid bombardment happened yesterday! Up to 5 giant asteroids were launched to Earth on Saturday April 2 according to the US space agency. While asteroids pass our planet almost every day, it’s rare to see so many asteroids passing Earth together. This also significantly increases the risk factor, as even someone who veers off course and heads towards Earth can cause immediate disaster for all of us.
Giant asteroids
While the expectation at this point is that these asteroids have achieved safe passage, things could change at any time. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, these five asteroids have been named 2022 FJ1, 2022 FQ, 2022 FE2, 2016 GW221, and 2021 GN1. Asteroids are between 18 and 40 meters in size, and while they are particularly large, if they collide with Earth they will cause severe local damage and create large craters that can channel tsunamis, earthquakes and wildfires.
It should be noted that all of these asteroids have been classified as Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and as such are all potentially dangerous to our planet. Just two weeks ago, an asteroid called 2022 EB5 veered off course and collided with Earth near the west coast of Greenland.
NASA: 5 asteroids are heading towards Earth
Asteroid 2022 FQ is an asteroid with a width of 37 meters, and its closest approach to the globe will be 3,070,000 km. GW221 2016 is the largest asteroid that circled the globe yesterday, 40 meters wide, passing by Earth at a distance of 3,740,000 kilometers.
Asteroids 2021 GN1 and 2022 FE2 are 18 meters and 30 meters wide, respectively, and their closest approaches will be at 5,510,000 and 3,850,000 km. Ultimately, 2022 FJ1 is a 26 meter wide asteroid that will teleport away from Earth from the farthest distance of about 6,320,000 kilometers. If you want to find out more about these asteroids, readers can visit NASA’s Small Object Database. Note that due to their distance, none of these asteroids will be visible to the naked eye. If someone wants to see these types of asteroids in the future, they need a high-powered telescope to be able to observe these space rocks floating in the sky.