Huge asteroid named ‘2008Go20’ will whizz past Earth on July 24

A huge asteroid, about the size of a stadium, is hurtling towards Earth at a very high speed. Named ‘2008Go20’, the asteroid will whizz past Earth on July 24.

The asteroid is cruising at over 8 kilometres per second, which is around 28,800 km/hour, a speed so high that anything coming in its way will suffer extreme catastrophe. The near-Earth object (NEO) is 20 meters wide and will be zooming by at a distance of 28,70,847,607 km, eight times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

While the asteroid will safely move past Earth, its orbit close to the planet has been classified as Apollo, which holds the most dangerous asteroids. Nasa is continuously monitoring the object.

Earlier in June, 2021KT1, an asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower came close to the planet. Classified as “potentially hazardous”, 2021KT1 made a close approach to Earth at a distance of 4.5 million km. Any object closer than 4.6 million km, is considered a potentially hazardous object.