Asteroid larger than Empire State to pass over Earth as Donald Trump’s presidency ends

An enormous steroid larger than the Empire State Building will fly safely past the earth in the final days of the Donald Trump presidency.

The space rock – named 65717 (1993 BX3) – would make its closest approach to our planet on January 17 at 03:49 ET – three days before President-elect Joe Biden was inaugurated – according to NASA’s Near Earth Studies Center (CNEOS). ).

At present, the asteroid will come within about 4.4 million miles of our planet, which is equivalent to about 18 times the average distance between the earth and the moon, CNEOS data show.

Based on its observable size, the space rock, first spotted in 1992, is estimated to be 1,345 feet in diameter.

If this estimate is correct, the asteroid would be slightly larger than the Empire State Building in New York City, which is approximately 1,250 meters high.

According to the CNEOS, the space rock will move more than 8,000 miles per hour – about four times faster than a rifle bullet.

1993 BX3 is classified as a near-earth object, or NEO. This term refers to asteroids and comets in orbit around the sun that can pass within 30 million miles of the earth’s own orbit.

There are currently about 25,000 NEOs, none of which, according to NASA, have a significant risk of hitting Earth. Asteroids make up the vast majority of this figure, although there are a small handful of comets.

Astronomers say they have identified more than 95 percent of the NEOs with a diameter of more than one kilometer (0.62 miles) that presumably exist.

“By constantly searching for asteroids, we expect to eventually find the majority of the hundred-meter asteroids over time, as they pass many years or decades ahead of our planet,” CNEOS director Paul Chodas said earlier. Newsweek.

Earlier this month, another huge asteroid sailed safely past Earth. This space rock, named 2015 NU13, measures an estimated 2,230 feet – almost twice the size of the Empire State.

The CNUOS data shows on January 9 at 4:16 am ET on 2015 NU13 within 3.5 million miles from Earth, and then points to more than 33,700 miles per hour.

The asteroid is one of the top 10 largest space rocks that will fly past our planet during the next year or so.