An asteroid dubbed a “planet killer” is going to have a close encounter with Earth this week.
The size of a mountain, asteroid 2011 UL21 is set to zip past our planet at a distance of around five million miles. The massive rock is set to go past on June 27 and will be one of the biggest to whizz by in 125 years.
LiveScience reports it will pass us at a speed of around 58,000 mph and has been labelled as “potentially hazardous,” given its proximity to Earth. Excitingly, stargazers will be able to see the event. 2011 UL21 orbits the sun around once every three years at a distance of 1.3 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.
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It is thought to be around 1.1 and 2.4 miles wide which makes it larger than roughly 99% of near-Earth asteroids – although it is thought to be around five times the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
An asteroid the size of 2011 UL21 would, according to LiveScience, still have the capacity to damage Earth on a continental scale.
It would cause enormous amounts of dust to be sent up into the atmosphere and lead to major changes in Earth’s atmosphere.
Because of this, according to the same outlet, this is a ‘planet killer’.
(Image: Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The June 27 passing of 2011 UL21 will be the closest it has come to Earth for 110 years according to simulations made by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
It is set to pass the Earth at around 17 times the distance that the moon is to Earth.
The rock does not pose any threat to Earth now or in the future. It is expected to be at its brightest between June 28 and June 29 and will be visible in the northern hemisphere.
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