Technical

Huge 'Christmas Eve asteroid' the size of a 10-story building will skim past Earth at 14,743mph tonight

December, 24, 2024-03:15

Share: Facebook | Twitter | Whatsapp | Linkedin | Visits: 38048 | :2821

---

Huge 'Christmas Eve asteroid' the size of a 10-story building will skim past Earth at 14,743mph tonight:

With Christmas Eve just around the corner, many children might be hoping to spot Santa flying overhead. But NASA has now warned that reindeer won't be the only things soaring above Earth in the coming days. Tonight, a massive 'Christmas Eve asteroid' the size of a ten-story building will skim past Earth at 14,743mph. 

                 According to NASA's Asteroid Watch dashboard, the space rock 2024 NX1 will reach its closest point to Earth at 02:56 am GMT in the early hours of Christmas Eve. At an estimated size of 29 to 70 meters (95-230 ft) in diameter, scientists believe 2024 NX1 could hold the destructive potential of 12 million tonnes of TNT.

  
          However, this will be a near miss by astronomical standards, experts say there is no chance of Christmas being ruined by a collision with this vast space rock. The space agency estimates that the asteroid should pass by the planet harmlessly at a distance of about 4.48 million miles (7.21 million km). Jess Lee, astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told Mail Online: 'It will be very far away, around 18 times further away from the Earth than the Moon is, and so with this predicted path won’t come close enough to hit the Earth.'