The colossal asteroid threatens to spoil Christmas festivities by making an “Earth close approach” next month. According to NASA’s asteroid trackers, the asteroid dubbed CH59 is hurtling towards Earth at speeds of nearly 27,450mph. At such a breakneck pace, the asteroid will close-in on Earth on the morning of December 26.
Asteroid CH59 is comparable in size to China’s Canton Tower and The Sears Tower in Chicago, US.
Any object this large could potentially level an entire continent if it struck the planet unannounced.
The force of impact would kill millions and wreak chaos and destruction on an unprecedented scale.
Based on a 2018 White House report on asteroid threats, any space rock measuring between 1,312.34ft (400m) and 5,249.344ft (1.6km) across is a “continental” threat.
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Because of this potential danger and the asteroid’s close approach to our planet, NASA has characterised it as both a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) and Near-Earth Object (NEO).
The asteroid report reads: “Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that come close to or pass across Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
“They range in size from small ‘meteoroids’ only a few meters across, to much larger bodies several kilometres wide.
“When NEO orbits bring them into Earth’s atmosphere, smaller objects harmlessly fragment and disintegrate, while larger objects can cause local damage or even global devastation.”
The report added: “Objects close to and larger than one kilometre can cause damage on a global scale.”
Objects this big can trigger devastating tsunamis, earthquakes and “secondary effects” that would extend far beyond the impact area.
Objects close to and larger than one kilometre can cause damage on a global scale
White House report on asteroid dangers
About 66 million years ago, an asteroid measuring about six miles (10km) is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all life on Earth.
Thankfully, Asteroid CH59 is not quite big enough to end all life on Earth.
NASA’s asteroid trackers at the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) estimate the rock measures in the range of 918ft to 2,034ft (280m to 620m) across.
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The asteroid is also flying towards Earth at speeds of around 12.27km per second or 27,447.208.
On Thursday, December 26, the asteroid will approach Earth around 7.54am GMT.
But even during the so-called close approach, NASA does not expect any risk of impact with the space rock.
NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth.
“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres
At its closest, Asteroid CH59 will approach the planet from a distance of about 0.04874 astronomical units (au).
One astronomical unit is the distance from our planet to the Sun or about 93 million miles (149.6 million km).
Asteroid CH59 will considerably cut this down to just 4.5 million miles (7.29 million km) next month.
In other words, the asteroid will near-miss us by nearly 19 times as far as the Moon is from Earth.
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