A planet-killer asteroid, about 3-4 kilometers (over 2.5 miles long) in diameter, nearly half the size of Mount Everest, will fly past and might be on a collision course for Earth next year, on April 29, 2020, at 5:56 am EDT.
According to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), as reported by International Business Times, asteroid 1998 OR2 which was first discovered in 1987, was classified by NASA as “potentially hazardous objects.”
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If it crashes on Earth it will have devastating effects. A massive explosion will cause impact and will cause an extreme global event that will change Earth’s weather and atmospheric conditions.
1998 OR2 asteroid passes periodically near Earth’s and Jupiter orbit. However, it will be about 3.9 million miles from the planet’s center. Depending on several factors in space, the asteroid could end up on a path straight to Earth.
How it may happen?
The first of the mitigating factors is the Yarkovsky effect usually considered in relation to asteroids up to 10 km in diameter, in which heat exerted from an internal object in space, such as the Sun, can alter the spin of meteoroids or an asteroid and force it into a deadly collision course with Earth.
The second factor is the gravitation keyhole. This is a tiny region in space that planet’s gravity would alter the orbit of a passing asteroid such that the asteroid would collide with that planet on a given future orbital pass. If 1998 OR2 goes through a keyhole, the gravitational forces could push it into a collision course with Earth.
According to IBT, NASA administrator, the Republican Congressman (Oklahoma), previously served on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Jim Bridenstine said: “We have to make sure that people understand that this is not about Hollywood, it’s not about the movies.
