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NASA confirms asteroid size of a football stadium is hurtling towards Earth this week
NASA confirmed that five asteroids are hurtling toward Earth, with one of them being as big as a football stadium!
While its difficult to pinpoint the exact number, its believed that the Earth has been smashed by an asteroid around 190 times. Its a rare occurrence, but still, one that has sparked countless Hollywood films where the likes of Bruce Willis scramble to save lives. But before you abandon all hope and make a break for the nearest wholesaler, experts have stated that our little planet is completely safe in the coming days.
A busy week in Earths immediate space
Over the next week, NASAs Asteroid Watch website predicted that five asteroids would be swinging into our neighborhood at shocking speeds.
The biggest, Asteroid 2008 OS7, is around 890 feet in diameter, making it around the size of a football stadium. Luckily, the giant poses no immediate risk to our safety and is expected to miss the planet by 1.77 million miles.
OS7 is only one of five space rocks to be making an appearance this week, with our first airplane-size visitor arriving on Tuesday within 3.8 million miles.
On Thursday, house-sized asteroid 2024 BY will swing by at a distance of just 1.57 million miles. On the same day, 2003 BM4 will also shoot past at a distance of 2.06 million miles.
What would happen if the asteroid hit?
The idea of an asteroid hitting Earth instantly evokes ideas of the poor dinosaurs. Thankfully, that hunk of rock was significantly bigger than OS7 with a colossal diameter of 44,880 feet!
But that isnt to say that the damage would be minimal, as an asteroid that hit Chelyabinsk in 2013 demonstrated. At just 66 feet wide, the rock created a shockwave with more energy than the nuclear bomb dropped at Hiroshima.
Still, scientists suggest that an asteroid would need to be 60 miles (96 kilometers) wide to totally wipe out life on Earth.
