Hyderabad, Apr 29: A huge Asteroid named ‘52768 (1998 OR2)’ which is 1.8km-4km in size and travelling at a speed of 8.7 km/sec will pass by Earth on Wednesday.
Planetary Society of India (PSI) Director N Sri Raghunandan Kumar told UNI here that, at 3.26 pm, it will be at a distance of 62 lakh km from the earth which is closest it can get to earth in the next 59 years.
He said social media is abuzz with videos creating fear and impact of this asteroid with Earth.
To prevent misconception, NASA had conducted a press conference on April 27 in which the Scientists had clearly stated that there is no danger to earth from this Asteroid.
After 2020, the next time this Asteroid will have closest approach to Earth is on May 18, 2031 at 0.12 AU (i.e., 1.9 Crore km).
This Asteroid is not visible to naked eye but can be spotted with the help of Astronomical Telescopes as it will shine at 11 magnitude during the closest approach, Mr Kumar added.