Asteroid bigger than Boeing 747 to collide with Earth’s orbit On Oct 7; Will it be dangerous?

Washington, Oct 06: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Tuesday has warned that an asteroid bigger than a Boeing 747 jet is set to collide with Earth's orbit on October 7.

The asteroid officially called 2020 RK2, was discovered last month and classified as an Apollo asteroid, a group near the Earth's orbit known for this phenomenon.

The asteroid is currently on a trajectory and is around 80 metres wide and travelling at 6.68 kilometres per second and is estimated to range from 36 metres to 81 metre in diameter, which is almost a width of 118-256 foot.

Based on the estimated size, the US space agency believes that the space rock can be bigger than the wingspan of a Boeing-747 8 series aeroplane that is almost 68.5 metres wide.

Is Asteroid 2020 RK2 dangerous?
NASA has advised the public not to worry and that the chances of it causing any real damage is "extremely unlikely." The space rock will be 3,830,238 kilometers away from the planet, peacefully passing by, but close to the Earth and entering its orbit.

However, despite coming in close to the Earth's orbit, astronomers are not likely to see it from Earth. The rock will be hurtling past our chunk of space rock, our home Earth, at about 1.12 PM in Eastern Standard time (United States) or 6.12 PM British Summer time.

According to reports, the space rock once safely passes planet Earth, it will not visit our orbit again until August 2027.

An asteroid officially called 2020 SX3 is also heading towards earth. The asteroid is between 38 and 86 metres across, according to NASA - that's about the size of three double-decker buses.

On September 24, a small near-Earth asteroid, roughly the size of a school bus, zoomed past Earth at a distance of about 22,000 kilometres above our planet's surface.