Asteroid is rushing towards Earth today!

This scary 73-foot asteroid is travelling towards Earth at a mind-bending 10705 miles per hour, NASA says.

Traveling at a speed of 10705 miles per hour, Asteroid LS4 is expected to come very close to Earth, says NASA. (Pixabay)

Asteroids have been zipping across the solar system for eons and there are millions of them confined to the asteroid belt. However, many of them find their orbit crossing that of the Earth and that is when things start getting scary and interesting. Since these asteroids are nothing but space missiles with huge destructive potential, US space agency NASA keeps a track of all of them in an effort to quickly find the one that may come too close to the planet that poses a serious threat to it.

And today, NASA has revealed that Asteroid 2024 LS4 is rushing towards Earth at a terrifying speed. So, is it something to worry about? Considering how close it will get, there is certainly a reason to keep checking its flight path for any last minute deviation. Notably, the sooner human observers catch the flight of an asteroid, the better are the chances of doing something about it. If the asteroid gets too close, it is too late to do anything except launch emergency services. The asteroid crashes on Earth that really made a big impact were the ones that hit Tunguska and Chelyabink. The latter put over a 1000 people in hospital.

While nothing of that sort is expected for the asteroid that is rushing towards Earth today, it still manages to raise quite a lot of fear due to its speed and proximity to the planet. 

Exactly how close will it get? The 73-foot Asteroid LS4 is expected to make its closest Earth approach today, June 15, 2024. And it will get as close as 2,650,000 miles of Earth. Notably, it is an airplane-sized asteroid.

This asteroid is travelling towards Earth at a mind-numbing 10705 miles per hour. 

Notably, NASA’s Small Body Database does not expect it to get any closer than that. However, NASA expects it to come back sometime in 2035.