‘Potentially hazardous’ asteroid, size of a bridge, to pass by Earth tomorrow

An asteroid, the size of a bridge, is expected to fly within 2.6 million miles of Earth on June 15. US space agency NASA has categorised it as a “potentially hazardous object.”

According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the asteroid has been named 2020 DB5 and is 1,600 feet long. This bridge-sized asteroid is the largest of the next five asteroids approaching Earth.

It is worth noting that this asteroid poses no threat of colliding with Earth. But it has grabbed the headlines due to its size and predicted proximity to our planet. Interestingly, this same asteroid has passed by Earth before as well.

As per NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, the orbit of 2020 DB5 has brought the asteroid within close proximity of Earth six times since 1905.

Its last visit was on June 23, 1995, and after the latest fly-by, the humongous asteroid isn't projected to encounter Earth again until May 2, 2048.

2020 DB5 is not the only asteroid which will fly by Earth harmlessly.

A bus-sized asteroid passed within 1.1 million miles of our planet on Tuesday. Even today, a house-sized asteroid will pass Earth from a distance of 197,000 miles.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) regularly releases a list of asteroids that will pass Earth harmlessly. California Institute of Technology manages the JPL on behalf of NASA.

JPL’s Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks asteroids that will have close encounters with Earth. Its dashboard displays the approximate object diameter, date of closest approach, and relative size and distance from Earth for every asteroid that passes out planet.

Within the last few years, the US space agency has taken further steps to protect humanity from threats posed by asteroids and other inbound objects such as comets.

In 2016, NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which helps the US government in mitigating or deflecting potential detected threats. Additionally, NASA conducted the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission to move an asteroid off course in September 2022.