NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself.
Asteroid news: The space rock will make a so-called close approach (Image: EXPRESS)
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And though there is no risk of impact from RM45, its size and speed paint a bleak picture of what else could be lurking in the depths of space.
Only last year did a 4.1km-wide rock coast past our planet and a 10km-wide asteroid is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Asteroid RM45 is estimated to measure somewhere between 310m and 680m across.
At the upper end of the estimate, the space rock is more than seven times as tall as Big Ben s clocktower in Westminster, London.
3 Massive Asteroids Will Zoom By Earth On Saturday
02/19/21 AT 5:30 AM The left-hand image shows SPHERE observations of Asteroid 1999 KW4. The angular resolution in this image is equivalent to picking out a single building in New York from Paris. An artist s impression of the asteroid pair is shown on the right. Photo: ESO
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NASA s CNEOS is keeping an eye on three giant asteroids set to make their close approach to Earth this Saturday
The three asteroids are estimated to be bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza
None of the three space rocks have been included in the European Space Agency s Risk List
Asteroid news: Wednesday, February 16 witnesses a data with a gargantuan asteroid dubbed 2021 BS3 (Image: Express)
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In addition to the asteroid’s size and distance, NASA experts are also impressively able to provide an accurate sense of its speed.
Using their cutting-edge technology, the space agency confirms the body to be travelling at 10.37 km/s or 23,197mph.
To put this into perspective, this asteroid is so fast, it is shooting through space ten times faster than a bullet fired from a gun.
But such speeds are actually the norm in the extreme environment of space.
Asteroid news: More is now known about the space rock responsible for the Chicxulub crater (Image: Getty)