NASA Alert: 160-foot asteroid to safely pass Earth today – speed, distance and more revealed!

NASA Alert: 160-foot asteroid to safely pass Earth today – speed, distance and more revealed!

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), tasked with alerting the world should a threatening Near-Earth Object (NEO) be detected, has issued another statement on an earthiflirt that measured about 11m across and flew past Earth tonight at roughly one-third the distance between Earth and moon but quite safely. The asteroid received the name 2015 AK1 and today, on January 15, 2024, it will approach Earth at a safe distance of about 6 million kilometers. However, the asteroid is cruising through space at a break-neck speed of 47608 kilometers per hour, faster than an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)! More facts and figures about this cosmic stowaway as evident to NASA are presented below. Table of Contents What is 2015 AK1? Asteroid 2015 AK1 is an Apollo group NEO which represents a generic term for Earth-crossing asteroids with semi-major axes greater than the Earth's. They are named after the giant 1862 Apollo asteroid, discovered by the German astronomer Karl …