NASA Reveals Five Asteroids Closer To Earth, Some Are The Size Of The Stadium

Illustration of asteroids approaching Earth (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA Asteroid Watch, part of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that detects Near-Earth Objects (NEO), announced that five asteroids have begun to approach Earth since last Monday, December 2.

Two asteroids approached on December 2, two other asteroids approached on December 3, while the rest approached Earth on December 4. The five asteroids are diverse in size, but much larger than the human size in general.

The two asteroids that have approached Earth are 2024 WN4 with a size of 15 meters or the equivalent of a house and 2021 XZ with a size of 8 meters or the equivalent of a bus. When first detected by Asteroid Watch, 2024 WN4 was 1.7 million kilometers from Earth.

Meanwhile, 2021 XZ is 5 kilometers from Earth when announced on the JPL dashboard. Next, on Tuesday, December 3, two asteroids that approached Earth were 2024 WL6 and 447755 (2007 JX2). These two asteroids are bigger than ever.

2024 WL6 is 18 meters in size or the size of a house, while 2007 JX2 is 396 meters in size or the size of a stadium. Even though it is very large, this JX2 asteroid has crossed Earth safely at around 5.16 WIB this morning.

This asteroid is traveling at a speed of 44,001 kilometers per hour so astronomers are interested in observing. If you follow astronomical standards, the distance of this asteroid is indeed close to Earth, but it is not as close as humans imagine.

JX2 distance to Earth is more than 14 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. In other words, this asteroid is not as close as the eye, but is good for astronomical observations. The size of JX2 is also greater than the asteroid that will cross Earth on December 4.

This asteroid named 2020 XR is still the size of a stadium, but only 366 meters wide. Like JX2, NASA believes that XR is a safe asteroid and only passes through Earth. This asteroid will not hit the atmosphere or even the Earth's surface.