WASHINGTON — A huge asteroid classified as "potentially hazardous" by NASA will streak past our planet on April 29, accordoing to NASA's Asteroid Watch.
Asteroid 52768, also known as 1998 OR2, is estimated by NASA to be between 1.8 to 4.1 kilometers wide.
It takes Asteroid 1998 OR2 three years and eight months to orbit our Sun.
Its journey takes it near Jupiter at its furthest point, but just outside Earth's farthest distance from the Sun on its closest approach.
On April 29 it will pass Earth at a distance that is more than 16 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
According to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, as of April 21, some 22,582 near-Earth objects had been discovered.
The latest data on the center's website shows that 9,085 of these were 140 meters or larger in size, and 902 were estimated to be larger than one kilometer.
By comparison, the Chicxulub asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs is estimated to have been 11 to 81 kilometres in diameter.
