A direct hit from an asteroid can wipe out the entire human race
Asteroids are not just rocks, they are just like a nuclear weapon cruising through space at super speed (Thousands of kilometres per second!). If an asteroid hits earth, you may bid your new year eve plans goodbye as the entire human race will be wiped out. Ask dinosaurs, they know a lot about this. Space being the chaotic place it is, send many such asteroids our way each month. Till now, not a single one has hit our planet to threaten human race but we never know.
Not one but 13 asteroids will approach earth this December but our planet will dodge each one of them. Some of these asteroids will come in contact with Earth's atmosphere and a few lucky ones among us will be able to witness them in the form of shooting stars. Here are some of the major ones likely to be visible to us.
On December 9, asteroid 2019 XY will brush past Earth. This will be a very close encounter as the distance between the asteroid and Earth will be just more than that between Earth and Moon.
On the same day another asteroid named 2019 XB will speed past Earth.
Another asteroid by the name 2019 WT3 will approach Earth on Monday.
At 9:50 am on December 18, asteroid 2019 XF will fly past Earth. This is the fastest asteroid among the lot. It will travel at a speed of 24 kilometres per second.
We spoke about the fastest, now let's see the largest asteroid in this group. Asteroid 216258 (2006 WH1) will speed past Earth at 8:47 pm on December 20. This rock is less than 600 m across. This may seem like a small size but asteroids pack punch because of their huge speeds.
Names of these asteroids can be a turn-off for many of us but such naming is necessary for identification and further study of these space rocks.
All 13 of these asteroids have been classified as Near-Earth Objects (NEO) by NASA.
NASA keeps a close watch on such NEOs and checks whether any of them poses an imminent threat.
