Asteroid racing at more than 40,000mph will reach its closest point to Earth today

NASA scientists have issued a warning about an asteroid, named 2024 MT-1, that's hurtling towards Earth at over 40,000 miles per hour and is expected to make a close pass today. The asteroid will be just 936,000 miles away from our planet, which, while it may sound alarmingly close, NASA assures us poses no threat to life on Earth.

As it continues its orbit around the sun, which takes roughly 1.2 years, the asteroid, measuring about 79 meters in width, will glide past Earth . While this size might seem concerning when compared to similar-sized physical structures, it doesn't set off any alarms for NASA. Any object larger than 150 meters that comes within a 4.6 million mile radius of Earth is classified as a 'potentially hazardous object. '.

NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology explained: “ Most near-Earth objects are asteroids that range in size from about 10 feet (a few meters) to nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers) across…The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don’t bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact, but a small fraction of them – called potentially hazardous asteroids – require more attention, the Irish Star reports .

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These objects are defined as asteroids that are more than about 460 feet (140 meters) in size with orbits that bring them as close as within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.”

NASA has previously experimented with diverting asteroids from Earth's path. In September 2022, the 1,200-pound DART spacecraft was launched into the asteroid Dimorphos.

However, hitting the space rock at a speed of 13,000 miles per hour resulted in the DART impactor blasting over 1,000 tons of dust and rock off the asteroid. This included 37 boulders, each measuring between 4 to 7 meters, which were ejected from the system during the impact.

A recent study tracking these boulders suggests they won't hit Earth, but several could crash into Mars, creating craters up to 300 meters wide.

In other space news, NASA has also been keeping tabs on another asteroid, 2024 JJ25. This celestial body was first spotted by astronomers in Hawaii on May 2 and made its closest approach to Earth on July 3.

With a diameter of approximately 370 feet, 2024 JJ5 is one of the largest near-Earth objects NASA has ever tracked.