Giant asteroids are about to fly over the Earth

Scientists say an asteroid, 20 times larger than a meteorite that once caused a big explosion in Russia, will approach Earth on January 26.

2004 BL86 asteroid with a diameter of about 400 - 1,000m. Lincoln Planetary Research Center (LINEAR) discovered it on January 30 last year. 2004 BL86 is expected to move at a distance of 1.2 million km, three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

Simulate an asteroid flying towards Earth.(Photo: ESA)

According to RT, a space object is potentially dangerous if it passes Earth's orbit at distances of less than 7.4 million kilometers (approximately 19.5 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon) and has the diameter exceeds 100-150m. Objects of this size are large enough to cause unprecedented destruction or the risk of massive tsunamis if they fall into the sea.

However, astronomers predict there is no risk of 2004 BL86 colliding with our planet. The Goldstone Observatory, located in the Mojave Desert in California, USA, will monitor 2004 BL86 as it moves near Earth.

On February 15, 2013, meteorites with a diameter of about 17 meters rushed into the atmosphere at a speed of 64,000km / h and exploded at a height of 19-24km above the ground. The collision caused meteorite rain in the sky of the provinces of Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Kyrgan and Sverdlovsk, as well as many localities along the Urals Mountains.

The energy source in the meteorite when exploded is estimated to be equivalent to the explosion of about 440-500,000 tons of TNT, and is 30 times stronger than the power of the Hiroshima bomb, Japan, 1945. .