Bhubaneswar: An asteroid thrice the size of the Taj Mahal will pass close to Earth and according to Nasa, it will reach its closest approach late on Sunday. The Near-Earth Object, 2008 GO20, will hurtle past Earth at a speed of 8.2 km per second and will be about three to four million kilometres away from our planet.
However, Dr Suvendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium in Bhubaneswar said that there is no need to panic as the same asteroid has flown past the planet earlier as well and at a much closer distance.
“We should not panic. We can safely say that it will not hit the earth,” Dr Pattnaik said.
“This asteroid has visited earth at a much closer distance of 19 lakh km and 29 lakh km in 1935 and 1977 respectively. At that time, it flew away and never came towards the earth. This time it is around 45 lakh km, which is about 11 to 12 times the earth-moon distance, so there is no danger of hitting the earth,” he added.
According to Dr Pattnaik, ‘2008 G20’ will be closest to earth on July 25, 2021 at 11.21 pm as per Indian Standard Time (IST).
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), a Near-Earth Object (NEO) is generally defined as an asteroid or comet that approaches Earth less than 1.3 times the distance from the blue planet to the Sun and NEOs pose no danger at all.
The last time the near-earth asteroid visited was on June 20, 2008, and it is expected to fly past again on July 25, 2034.
