…well, not exactly unless you believe the trajectory of the said space object as detailed in the image below;
[ATTACH=full]190473[/ATTACH]
However, it will pass within 0.03377 astronomical units, or about three million miles of Earth. Three million miles sounds like a lot, we know, but to put this into context - the sun sits at 93 million miles away.
Lindley Johnson, a planetary defence officer at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington, said the asteroid poses no risk to us on Earth.
He told Space.com: "There is absolutely nothing for concern by this pass of 2016 NF23.
“This object is merely designated a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) because its orbit over time wings it within five million miles of Earth’s orbit, but there is nothing hazardous to Earth or even unique about this pass of the asteroid.”
[CENTER]http://beta.ems.ladbiblegroup.com/s3/content/b0504bf45b823f5e54e62cac414c7b2d.jpg
Credit: PA[/CENTER]
The space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) also said: "Nasa knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small.
"In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years.
“To be able to better calculate the statistics, astronomers need to detect as many of the near-Earth objects as possible.”
So, there you have it - hope that’s sorted the hangover right out. The asteroid isn’t going to hit Earth - since we’d be wiped out if it smashed into our planet, I think we can probably all feel a little fortunate over the next few days.
Is it though? I can speak for Kenya and say our population density is pretty modest. We are the 49th largest country in the World but ranked 116th in terms of population density. The biggest threat in that regard is the wealth disparity that exists. I know @FieldMarshal CouchP will disagree though
In that case if it were godsend to reduce population then the best place would be china,us and all those western continents,not africa sisi hatutaki kuacha cuma na ugali.
How comes these big asteroids don’t hit earth… Apart from ile ya enzi za dinosaurs… Is earth that small or is the space that big… Or is it an act of God…