An asteroid known as “the Beast” was reported to pass the Earth on Sunday.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the asteroid is about the length of a block in the city of New York and will be at least 770,000 miles away from the Earth. Because it is estimated to be at least 800 to 1,300 feet and will be so close, it has been classified as “potentially hazardous.”
Luckily, we are in no danger of being hit by this asteroid. Reportedly, Don Yeomans and his team at NASA’S Near-Earth Object Program Office have calculated the asteroid’s orbit to about 2200 and there is no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth during this time.
The Detroit Free Press reported the asteroid has been named 2014 HQ124 and it was said to go past the Earth around 1:56 in the morning, although no one would actually be able to see the asteroid.
NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer saw the asteroid on April 23rd.
According to Space, while the asteroid is too far away, its size means it could create a great deal of damage if it made impact into us.
Mark Boslough, an asteroid impact expert at the New Mexico Sandia National Laboratories said in a webcast on June 5 that “If it hit a city, it would definitely wipe out an entire metropolitan area,” Space reported.
Usually, Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be able to figure out the asteroid’s impact point once it’s “within radar distance,” Boslough stated. However, there have been incidents where a smaller asteroid did make impact when they had been previously undetected.
