Asteroid 2017 DR109 To Pass by Earth on 24th February 2018: Is it Dangerous?

A dead chunk of rock, a designated Asteroid 2017 DR109 is speeding towards the planet. It will skim close to us on 24^th of February, NASA has warned. It will appear in the dark sky just after 5.18am and will fly at a striking distance of almost four Lunar Distances. According to the space agency, it will pass from a distance of 0.007AU from Earth which is more than a million kilometers away.

However, there is no need to panic since it is a tiny one. It measures just 11 meters in diameter. The asteroid is not even included in NASA’s list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). NASA has categorised PHAs as those space rocks that are larger than 100 meters in diameter. And they run the chance of coming closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. In general, a hundred of such tiny rocks whizz past the earth on a yearly basis. So much so, that they are not even named.

The DR109 is among the 20 alone asteroids to arrive in the month of February alone! Four asteroids flew by on February 13 and another four on Valentines Day, February 14. NASA had said, “Every day, Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles. About once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits Earth's atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface.” It is the meteoroids which can cause a damage and leave craters on the Earth’s surface. The first Earth flyby of this particular DR109 asteroid was recorded nearly 80 years ago on August 5, 1942.

A lot of similar asteroids keeping passing by and there are a lot of rumors which get associated with it. A doomsday prediction was made on February 4, when a giant asteroid AJ129 was to pass close to the Earth.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 20, 2018 11:10 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).