Keep an eye on sky as giant asteroid will fly past Earth tonight

Sky gazers will get lucky tonight as a giant asteroid larger than a double-decker bus will come closer to Earth than the moon does.

NASA warned people about a huge space rock dubbed Asteroid VX1 is set to make its closest possible approach to Earth on Saturday (November 10) evening, racing past a distance of only 381,474km from Earth. This distance is close than the moon’s that hangs out about 384,400km away from Earth.

According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the asteroid is expected to swing by Earth somewhere around 06:00pm UTC (11:00pm Pakistan Time) and make its closest approach at around 06:20pm UTC (11:20pm Pakistan Time).

Express.co reported, this extremely close fly-by of the asteroid gives it the title of a Close Earth Approach by a Near Earth Object (NEO)’. However, the space agency clarified that a ‘close’ passage in astronomical terms differs from human terms. A ‘close’ passage can be very far away in human terms, ‘millions or even tens of millions of kilometers’.

Racing through speeds of around 6.06km per second, Asteroid VX1 is approximately somewhere between 25.9ft and 59ft in diameter. The asteroid could be almost twice as long as a double-decker bus or slightly taller than a giraffe. However, NASA clarified that the asteroid causes no potential threat to Earth, as per Live Science.

After calculations, NASA predicted that the space rock will make more of the Close Earth Approaches on October 28, 2026, October 17, 2034, March 25, 2035, and October 8, 2042.

Moreover, as per Live Science, there are two other asteroids that will pass by Earth on Saturday too, but they are not that close. Asteroid 2018 VS1 will pass at around 02:03pm UTC (07:03pm Pakistan Time) at about 1.38 million km away from Earth – almost four times as far away from the planet as the moon is.

Whereas, Asteroid 2018 VR1 will fly by Earth at around 02:19pm UTC (07:19pm Pakistan Time) on the same day. This asteroid is even further away being at about 5 million km away from Earth.