A Giant Asteroid Is Getting Ready To Skim By Earth Closer Than The Moon At 18,000 MPH

Asteroid 2011 ES4 Going To Pass Earth Closer Than The Moon

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Don’t panic, but a rather menacing 170-foot tall asteroid is predicted to make a pass by Earth at a distance closer than the moon at a speed of somewhere in the neighborhood of 18,250 mph on Sept. 1.

I say, don’t panic because NASA is all over this Near-Earth Object (NEO) named Asteroid 2011 ES4. And despite it being classified as a “Potentially Hazardous” asteroid, I’m sure if it gets too close we’ll be able to take care of it before it can do any real damage.

Oh, wait, we are totally unprepared for that type of situation with an asteroid? You don’t say.

NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) currently says Asteroid 2011 ES4 will pass by at around 0.00048 astronomical units or 44,618 miles away from our planet.

By comparison, the moon is located 238,900 miles away from Earth.

Here are the orbital paths that Asteroid 2011 ES4 and Earth will be taking all the way up to Sept. 1.

Asteroid 2011 ES4 Is Going To Pass Earth Closer Than The Moon

JPL-NASA


Should Asteroid 2011 ES4 change its trajectory between now and then, which has been known to happen due to something called the Yarkovsky effect, and actually collide with Earth it would cause similar damage as the explosion of an asteroid over Chelyabinsk, Russia which shattered windows in the area and caused injuries to more than 1,000 people.

That being said, NASA believes there is only a one in 300,000 chance per year of an asteroid capable of causing regional damage striking Earth.

So there you go. I’m sure everything will be fine. At least until the year 2022. Or 2135. Or any of these 10 other dates.

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Before settling down at BroBible, Douglas Charles, a graduate of the University of Iowa (Go Hawks), owned and operated a wide assortment of websites. He is also one of the few White Sox fans out there and thinks Michael Jordan is, hands down, the GOAT.