'Potentially hazardous' asteroid the size of Pyramid of Giza to hurtle 'near' Earth
(File Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
FOX NEWS - NASA has issued an alert that a "potentially hazardous asteroid" is on a "close approach" towards Earth. However, it's nothing to be alarmed at, as the asteroid is expected to zoom past the planet approximately 3 million miles away.
The enormous space rock, known as asteroid 2016 NF23 and estimated to be between 230 and 525 feet in diameter, will zip past Earth on Aug. 29 at a velocity of 9.04 kilometers per second, or approximately 20,000 miles per hour, the government space agency said on its Earth Close Approaches page.
It is the third largest near-Earth object (NEO) on the page, behind two other asteroids which will fly past Earth in the early part of September, 2001 RQ17 and 2015 FP118.
At 230 feet, it would be slightly smaller than a Boeing 747. At the high-end of the estimate, 525 feet, it would be taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is approximately 455 feet high.
Near-Earth objects regularly fly by the planet, though "potentially hazardous objects" are ones that are less than 0.05 au (astronomical units) away from the planet, or approximately 5 million miles.
Any asteroid that comes within 4.6 million miles of Earth with a diameter greater than 500 feet is termed “potentially hazardous," according to NASA.