Wednesday, September 22nd, will see the Earth experience 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. A renegade space rock of about three times the statue of Liberty's size will also be visible.
According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - the asteroid 2021 NY1 will pass our planet in a safe manner but it is still classified as a Near-Earth Object. It will travel within 120 million miles (193,000,000 kilometers) of Earth.
Asteroid 2021 NY1 will approach Earth at a distance of approximately 970,000 miles (1.5560,000 km), or less than four times the distance between Earth's surface and the moon.
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Although asteroids such as these pose no danger to Earth's life, NASA keeps track of all NEOs in case their orbits change and they come closer to collision with Earth. The characteristics of NEOs may also provide new information about the origins of the solar system. Most asteroids are made up of rocky fragments.
According to NASA's NEO database, Asteroid 2021 NY1 measures between 425 and 985 feet in size (130 to 300 metres) and is about three to six Statues tall. This rock cruises through space at approximately 21,000 mph (33 800 km/h), or about 27 times the speed sound.
This autumnal asteroid, for what it's really worth, is not the closest to our area. The asteroid 2020QG takes the honor. It sailed just 1,830 miles (2.950 km) above our Indian Ocean on August 16, 2020, Live Science's sister website Space.com reported. Without burning up in our atmosphere or striking the planet's surface, no known asteroids have ever come close.
Original publication on Live Science
