Asteroid to make a pass by earth
As the whole world world buckled under the strain of Coronavirus, an asteroid up to 2.5 miles wide is set to pass by the Earth next month, though it'll miss by a wide margin of about 4 million miles.
According to space author David Whitehouse, Asteroids have created a field of debris surrounding Earth which threatens to eventually wipe out humanity and turn the planet into an “airless burnt cinder”.
Amid the sensational claims, several scientists say the news of an asteroid approaching Earth in April are misleading. There is indeed an asteroid that is expected to pass "near" the Earth on April 29, 2020 but James O'Donoghue, a planetary scientist, says that the asteroid will not threaten humanity.
The asteroid, formally known as 52768, was discovered in 1998 and is listed by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on a list of objects that will approach Earth.
It has an estimated 4.1 kilometres in diameter—much larger than the most common asteroids—which generally do not exceed 100-200 metres in diameter. NASA diagrams appear to show the asteroid crossing the Earth's orbit.
It's also true that the object is on NASA's list of "potentially hazardous asteroids" but the definition of these asteroids is broad and technical. The bravest readers can find it here.
O'Donoghue says that asteroids are classified in this category based on distance, size and future orbit. But to put it into perspective, he created a graphic that shows what the Near-Earth Object Centre considers an "approach".
The asteroid is expected to pass at a distance equivalent to more than 16 times the distance that separates us from the moon.
