NASA watches 110-foot Sardar Patel's Statue of Unity sized asteroid at 30,381 km/h towards Earth-Will it hit?
2024 OR1, measuring approximately 110 feet in diameter, is on a trajectory that will bring it close to Earth on August 6, 2024, at 6:41 PM IST. NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) issued a warning about this near-Earth object (NEO), which is traveling at a speed of 30,381 kilometers per hour. However, it is predicted to pass safely away from Earth.
2024 OR1 belongs to the Apollo group, a category of asteroids with orbits that intersect Earth’s orbit, making them subjects of intense study. The asteroid's dimensions and rapid speed place it under NASA's close observation regime, part of a broader effort to track potentially hazardous asteroids. The size of 2024 OR1 is roughly comparable to that of a blue whale, and it moves at velocities similar to other fast-moving NEOs. Radar observations and optical telescopes have been employed to determine its trajectory and physical characteristics.
NASA's initial detection of 2024 OR1 happened at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The detection is part of the agency’s ongoing mission to monitor NEOs that could pose a danger to Earth. These efforts are managed by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which is tasked with detecting, tracking, and characterizing hazardous asteroids and comets.
“NASA’s warning about 2024 OR1 comes amid a series of close encounters with other asteroids. Just a few days before, on August 4, 2024, a larger asteroid named 2024 OC, measuring about 410 feet, passed by Earth. Earlier in the
