Giant asteroid 600 times stronger than nuclear bomb is about to fly past Earth

According to NASA's asteroid tracking division, an asteroid about 190 meters long will pass by Earth at the end of December, if it collides, will cause much more destruction than 800 atomic bombs. .

According to observers, the asteroid, named 2018 AH, will pass by Earth on December 27. This object is considered to have many similarities with the 17-meter-long Tunguska asteroid that caused a 12-megatonne explosion before.

 The asteroid, named 2018 AH, will pass by Earth on December 27.

NASA has classified AH 2018 as a near-Earth object. The celestial body has been classified as Apollo - the most dangerous level. Apollo asteroids often have orbits intersecting with our planet, potentially impacting, causing danger. However, the space agency said it is unlikely that the celestial body will collide with our planet. AH 2018 is expected to pass by Earth at a distance of more than 4.5 million km.

But if its orbit changes and it heads towards Earth, the impact will have dire consequences. To see just how catastrophic, let's take a look back at the 17-meter-long Tunguska asteroid explosion in the atmosphere over Russia's Chelyabinsk Region in 2013, which damaged more than 7,000 buildings and caused $33 million in damage. .

If AH 2018 collides with the earth, it will create about 800 times more destructive force than the "Little Boy" atomic bomb, about 15 kilotons that exploded during World War II in Hiroshima, causing 135,000 casualties, and 600 times more than "Fat Man" - a 20 kiloton bomb that exploded in Nagasaki killing 64,000 people.

This is not the first time asteroid 2018 AH has passed by Earth. In 2018, asteroid 2018 AH passed by Earth at a distance of 296,758 km, three-quarters of the distance from Earth to the Moon. Despite its huge size, it goes unnoticed due to being too dim.