A Blue whale-sized ‘hazardous’ asteroid that was only spotted last Sunday by NASA, will skim past Earth TODAY at less than one-fifth the distance between our planet and the moon.
NASA has discovered the asteroid 2018 CB, a 200,000 ton space rock, hurtling through space at more than 18,000 mph and on its way to pass Earth this evening.
The asteroid could be up to 40 meters long – making it much longer than the blue whale. NASA also says the rock could be double the size of the meteor that almost wiped out Chelyabinsk in 2013, injuring more than 1,000 people.
The asteroid will be travelling at hyper-sonic speeds as it flies by at close to five miles per SECOND – making it four times faster than the speediest ever man-made machine, the North American X-15 which can travel at 4,520 miles per hour.
Experts say it is likely to be between 15 to 40 meters in size and that space rocks like these only come this close “once or twice” a year.
According to NASA the asteroid will pass by at around 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST) tonight at just 39,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) or about one-fifth of the distance between our planet and the moon.
(To watch the full report, kindly click on the video below)
