Asteroid 2002 NN4 will pass through Earth at 11:20 p.m. on Saturday. MEAT, NASA says. With an estimated diameter of up to 1,870 feet, To Near World Object Research Centerwill definitely look like a big thing.
But NASA says it will be about 3.2 million miles away from our planet, 13 times farther than the moon, so there really is no reason to worry.
And such events are quite normal. Last August, an asteroid was estimated to be the same size as the 2002 NN4 passed by Earth, and then experts called it medium sized.
And this asteroid is less than a mile long. Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, told CNN last year, the largest known asteroid orbiting the sun, a 21-mile comet.
Still, then, the probability of actually hitting an asteroid on Earth is rather weak – it happens every two or three centuries.
In 2013, a meteor burst just 55 meters in diameter from Earth’s atmosphere over Russia. Meteor did not actually affect the planet, but the explosion still injured more than 1.00 people.
Being millions of miles away is not the case with the 2002 NN4. So you can spend a relaxing Saturday evening, knowing that an asteroid doesn’t actually come to blow us up. Today, at least.
Next time it will be in June 2029, when the 2002 NN4 will be near us.
