A meteorite three to six times larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York will pass close to Earth on the autumn equinox, September 22.
Simulation of an asteroid flying near Earth. (Image: Pixabay).
The asteroid 2021 NY1 poses no threat to our planet, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but it is still classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO) as it orbits about 193 million kilometers from the Sun. Thus, 2021 NY1 will come relatively close to Earth (1,560,000 km), which is less than four times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
NASA monitors all NEOs to prepare for potential changes in their orbits that could increase the risk of collision with Earth. Studying the characteristics of NEOs may reveal new information about the early days of the solar system, as most asteroids are remnants from that era.
The asteroid 2021 NY1 has a diameter of approximately 130 to 300 meters, making it three to six times larger than the Statue of Liberty, according to NASA’s NEO database. The object is traveling through space at a speed of about 33,800 km/h, which is 27 times the speed of sound.
NASA reports that there are currently over 18,000 asteroids located near Earth. These near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets affected by the gravitational pull of nearby planets, causing them to drift toward Earth. Comets, primarily composed of ice mixed with dust particles, often originate from distant star systems, while asteroids typically come from within the solar system, particularly from the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The closest asteroid to Earth is 2020 QG, which passed just 2,950 km from the Indian Ocean on August 16, 2020. No asteroid has come closer without burning up in the atmosphere or impacting the Earth’s surface.
