DUBAI: An asteroid capable of wiping out life on Earth will pass relatively close on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017.
The three-mile-wide rock, named Florence, will travel through space approximately 4.4 million miles away from Earth.
That is roughly 18 times the distance between the Moon and Earth.
In space terms this is relatively close – but NASA is reminding people that space “is really big.”
So, while it could wipe us out in a flash, that will not happen on this occasion, unless someone somewhere has made a serious miscalculation.
But if it did hit, scientists say it would probably throw up a cloud of dust, leading to fire raining down, setting the planet’s forests ablaze.
Destroying the environment and making most life unsustainable.
By comparison, the asteroid thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was 6 miles wide, that is more than double the size of Florence.
“Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the Nasa program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began,” said Paul Chados, the scientist managing Nasa’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.
The presence of this vast asteroid has been known since 1981, although it is said the last time Florence came this close was 1890.
And if you miss it passing this time, Florence will be back, but probably not until the year 2500.
‘Close shave’ with massive asteroid expected on Friday
‘Close shave’ with massive asteroid expected on Friday
