Asteroid 2005 YU55 likely to pass near Earth

Asteroid 2005 YU55

A big asteroid, bigger than aircraft about 400m wide (1300 ft)  is likely to pass near the earth today. Asteroid 2005 YU55 will be about 2,02,000 miles away from earth which is more closer to earth  than moon.  Earth’s close encounter with the asteroid 2005 YU55  will occur at 6.28pm EST.

Although asteroids often pass  this close but are mostly tiny plunging enormous pieces on earth which burns without doing any harm but Asteroid 2005 YU55 is largest that had passed in last 200 years . The asteroid is traveling about 29,000 miles per hour.

“The asteroid is too dim to be seen with the naked eye and its gravity is too weak to affect tides or earthquake activity”, said experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The aircraft sized is darkly coloured in visible wavelengths, roughly spherical

2005 YU55 wide as aircraft

spinning slowly.

Amateur astronomers can catch the glimpse of Asteroid 2005 YU55 through telescope of 15cm or larger.

Scientist believe that if an asteroid or similar strikes the earth, it can cause destruction equivalent to destruction caused due to earthquake and Tsunami. But according to scientists asteroid 2005 YU55 poses no danger to either moon or earth.2005 YU55 cannot hit Earth, at least over the interval that we can compute the motion reliably – which extends for several hundred years,”  Lance Benner of NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory  said.

It is expected to be 2028 when another asteroid comes so close to earth, when the asteroid 2001 WN5 passes at a distance of about 143,000 miles.