It was around 66 million years back that a giant asteroid hit the earth causing massive destruction all across the planet.
The impact of the hit was so huge, and it resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs, then dominant species on the blue planet.
Due to close calls with asteroids, researchers at NASA and ESA have been keeping track of these space bodies for several years.
And now, the United States space agency has shed light on an asteroid that is expected to pass Earth on January 02, 2024.
According to NASA, this space body named 'Asteroid 2023 YR' is expected to pass Earth at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers.
Researchers at NASA believe that this space body is currently screeching across the space at a speed of over 44,000 kilometers per hour.
The asteroid has a size of an aircraft, and it is not considered a potentially
Asteroid YR 2023 belongs to the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which are Earth-crossing space rocks with semi-major axes larger than Earth's.
This is not the first time that Asteroid YR 2023 is making a close approach with the earth.
The asteroid first passed the planet on September 11, 1991, at a distance of approximately 14 million kilometers.
The space body is expected to fly past the Earth again on September 11, 2029.
Even though no asteroids have unleashed chaos on earth in recent years, space experts strongly believe that deep impacts from space are not confined to the past.
To protect the Earth from such a chaotic event, most space experts believe that nuking the approaching space body is the only way to prevent a possible devastating scenario.
In April 2023, another team of experts suggested that there could be another effective way to protect the Earth from such an apocalyptic event. According to these experts, the trajectory of the approaching asteroid can be successfully deflected by hitting it with a spacecraft.
