Sci/Tech Nearing Earth is an asteroid the size of two Empire State Buildings.

[The Helper]

On Thursday, April 28, 2022 a massive asteroid the size of the Empire State Building will speed past the Earth.

The asteroid, known as 418135 (2008 AG33), will be traveling at speeds of up to 23,264 miles per hour. Its width is estimated to be between 1,150 and 2,560 feet.

That speed is 11 times faster than a rifle bullet, which travels at around 2,050 miles per hour, and 27 times faster than a bullet fired from a typical handgun, which travels at around 859 miles per hour.

The asteroid will be traveling at a speed of over 30 times the speed of sound, or 767 miles per hour, and 15 times faster than a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter’s maximum speed of around 1,500 miles per hour.

Nearing Earth is an asteroid the size of two Empire State Buildings. - Ceng News

On Thursday, April 28, a massive asteroid the size of the Empire State Building will speed past the Earth.

www.cengnews.com

 

[Ghan]

A bit more about this object....

Discovered 2008-Jan-12 by Mt. Lemmon Survey at Mount Lemmon:

Small-Body Database Lookup

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov

Also the predicted flight path shows it making its closest approach about 3.2 million km from Earth. For reference, the Moon sits around 350,000 - 400,000 km away depending on where it is in its orbit. So I'm not sure I'd call that "nearing Earth" except when compared to, say, the rest of the planets.

 

[The Helper]

I would really like to see us capture that asteroid and mine it.