It's quite common that asteroids come close to earth, NASA calls them "Near -Earth Objects. Experts say even if they did, they wouldn't cause much damage. Just the thought of some huge rock the size of a bus or jumbo jet is startling.
Just a week ago, an asteroid tried playing kissy-face with earth, coming within 1,830 miles to Earth. That is recorded has one of the closest and scientists only found out it existed... AFTER the fact.
ASTEROID FUN FACT
The term NEO refers to "comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood”. (According to NASA)
NASA Asteroid Watch tweeted Sunday-
"Asteroid 2018VP1 is very small, approx. 6.5 feet, and poses no threat to Earth!"
"It currently has a 0.41% chance of entering our planet's atmosphere, but if it did, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size."
MAIN ASTEROID BELT
Most asteroids orbit within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, these are the asteroids they are aware of and estimate that there are between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids. That's a lot of asteroids.
We spoke with Dr. Edward Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory on the asteroid the size of jumbo jet that passed by Earth today.
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