Large Asteroid Approaching Earth On Christmas Eve At 23,000 Kilometers Per Hour; Will It Hit Or Miss?
Asteroid 2024 XN1, a space rock the size of about a 10-story building, is fast approaching planet Earth with a velocity of 14,743 miles per hour, or 23726.5 kilometers per hour.
The 120-square-foot asteroid was spotted by NASA’s tracking system, which keeps a hawk’s eye watch on an impending threat to the planet by monitoring the tracks of several asteroids on the flight path towards Earth. Asteroid 2024 XN1 is scheduled to arrive on the eve of Christmas in December 2024. However, it will only wave past us earthlings for its own cosmic party elsewhere in the deep void.
The asteroid will be skipping earth by 4,480,000 miles, which is equivalent to 16x the distance between our home and the closest natural satellite, the moon.
Per the scientists closely probing the trajectory of the cosmic pebble, the event will be a “near miss,” but a gentle reminder that we are still underprepared to handle an asteroid threat that can wipe out the entire civilization from the face of earth.
Christmas Eve Asteroid Alert: 120-Foot Space Rock Racing Toward Earth pic.twitter.com/uRw3gYMral
— NDTV (@ndtv) December 20, 2024
Reactions poured in, with a few celebrating and others taking a jibe at their own existential crisis, invoking Asteroid 2024 XN1 to do the job for once. “Aa ja fatafat” (come soon), wrote a netizen, while another remarked, “Hope it doesn’t miss.”
Cover image: Illustrative / StockCake
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