Stadium-Sized Asteroid Buzzes Earth: Close Call or Just Cosmic Sightseeing?

NASA is keeping a close eye on a "potentially hazardous" asteroid, named 2024 ON, as it zips past Earth. This space rock, measuring approximately 1,150 feet by 590 feet, made its closest approach on Tuesday. NASA describes the asteroid as "stadium-sized" and reported it was about 621,000 miles away from us. Davide Farnocchia from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted that asteroids of this size rarely come this close—only every five to ten years. Speaking of space weather, the last time Earth encountered a meteor of significant size was back in 2013 in Russia. But don't worry, even though 2024 ON is labeled "potentially hazardous," Farnocchia assures us there's no chance of a collision for at least the next century. They've crunched the numbers, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. This asteroid is just one of five slated to pass by Earth in the next couple of days. The others, however, will remain at a more comfortable distance, ranging from 1.1 to 3.9 million miles away. One of these, named 2013 FW13, is about 510 feet in diameter and will swing by on Wednesday. NASA's Asteroid Watch Dashboard is diligently tracking these near-Earth objects. On Tuesday, 2024 ON was traveling at a blistering pace of nearly 20,000 miles per hour. The dashboard provides updates on the date of closest approach, object size, and distance from Earth. It flags anything larger than 150 meters that comes within 4.6 million miles as a potentially hazardous object.