Asteroid as big as a blue whale to fly past Earth today, says NASA

Asteroid 2016 LK49 will come within a distance of 364,150 kilometers of Earth traveling at a speed of 19.4 kilometers per second

An asteroid, approximately 21 meter in diameter, is heading towards Earth on Monday. The size of the asteroid has been compared to that of an airplane by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), a blue whale by News Nine and 15 alpacas by the Jerusalem Post.

According to Nasa’s asteroid tracker, the asteroid is named 2016 LK49, and it will reportedly zoom past Earth at a speed of 19.4 kilometers per second.

The asteroid will come within a distance of 364,150 kilometers, which is closer to Earth than the Moon, stated the report by News Nine.

2016 LK49 belongs to a group of asteroids called Apollos, named after the asteroid 1862 Apollo. These asteroids are called ‘near Earth asteroids’ because they can come close to our planet and also have orbits around the Sun that are larger than Earth's orbit. The shape of their orbits is similar to an elongated circle known as an ‘ellipse.’

According to the same report, this asteroid had made a close approach to Earth once before in December 2020, and the next one, following today, is expected in December 2027.

Every 200 years or so, an asteroid similar to this one actually enters Earth's atmosphere. However, these asteroids usually break apart in the air due to the friction caused by the atmosphere, called an ‘airburst.’ In these cases, the asteroid never reaches the ground or even leaves an impact crater. Instead, it explodes at an altitude of about 11 kilometers, releasing energy equivalent to two million tonnes of trinitrotoluene (TNT).

Even though the asteroid wouldn't hit the ground, an airburst can still cause significant damage on the surface, added the report. If it were to happen over a densely populated area, it would be catastrophic. Trees within a 14-kilometer radius would catch fire, around 330,000 people could lose their lives, and about five million people would suffer severe burns.

Whenever an advanced asteroid monitoring network detects a potential impact, if the predicted location and time are accurate, scientists try to capture the asteroid as it enters the atmosphere. However, this has only been successfully done seven times in the past, with the most recent instance occurring in February.