Asteroid 2002 NN4 will pass Earth on Saturday at 11:20 a.m. ET, NASA said. At an estimated diameter of up to 1,870 feet, according to to the Near Earth Object Study Center, it will definitely look like a big one.
But, that would be about 3.2 million miles away from our planet, 13 times farther from the moon, NASA said, so there’s really no reason to worry.
And events like this are very normal. Last August, an asteroid was estimated to be about the same size as the 2002 NN4 the Earth passed through, and experts at that time called it medium size.
And, this asteroid is less than a mile long. The biggest asteroid known to orbit the sun is 21 miles in length, Lindley Johnson from NASA’s Planet Defense Coordination Office told CNN last year.
However, the probability of an asteroid really hitting the Earth is pretty thin – happening every two or three centuries, Johnson said at the time.
In 2013, a 55-foot diameter meteor penetrated the Earth’s atmosphere above Russia. The meteor actually had no impact on the planet, but the explosion still injured more than 1.00 people.
Being millions of miles away, that shouldn’t have happened with NN4 2002. So, you can spend Saturday nights relaxing, knowing that the asteroid actually didn’t come to destroy us. Least today.
Next time NN4 2002 will be close to us in June 2029.
