Nearly 600 meters asteroid will fly over Earth next week

The 2006 asteroid QQ23 will fly over the Earth on August 10 with an estimated diameter of 570 meters, longer than the Empire State Building in the US.

Researcher Lindley Johnson and Kelly Fast at NASA's Planetary Coordination Office said 2006 QQ23 is not worth worrying because this medium-sized asteroid flies about 8 million kilometers from Earth. It is classified as "objects near the Earth".

2006 asteroid QQ23 is medium sized.(Photo: Noizz).

Large asteroids like 2006 QQ23 fly over the Earth about 5-6 times a year. The largest asteroid orbits the Sun known by researchers about 34 km long. NASA's near-Earth object observation program classifies nearly 900 asteroids around Earth with a diameter of over 1 km. Smaller asteroids are more common.

Most celestial bodies burn when flying through the Earth's atmosphere but in some cases cause serious damage. In 2013, meteorite diameter of nearly 17 meters exploded in the sky of Russia, injuring over 1,000 people. If 2006 QQ23 crashed into Earth, the area the size of a state would be destroyed.

NASA is developing technology to search for asteroids and track when they fly near Earth. They tracked the 2006 asteroid QQ23 data from 1901. If asteroids are thought to be a threat to Earth, NASA will proceed to deflect its flight.

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