A massive asteroid as big as the Arc de Triomphe was predicted to have a chance of smashing into Earth today, as rapture watchers warn the space rock is a sign of the end of days.
2019 RG2 is an Apollo-type Near-Earth Object (NEO) that flies around the inner ring of the solar system on a trajectory, similar to Asteroid 1862 Apollo. NASA has estimated that the space rock measures somewhere in the range of 29 ft to 65.6 ft and will close in on Earth at the brink of around 21.99 kilometres per second!
At its closest approach, the asteroid will near-miss the Earth from a distance of approximately 0.00350 astronomical units (au). A single astronomical unit is the same distance as between the Earth to the Sun, which is about 149.6 million kilometres. This leads us to believe that Asteroid RG2 will safely pass us from a distance of 523,529 kilometres – that’s approximately how far apart the Moon is from Earth!
Occasionally, a NEO like RG2, which is just like any comet or asteroid orbiting Earth, unfortunately crosses path with our home planet. However, it is noteworthy that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres. Consequently, Asteroid RG2 will come dangerously close to Earth tonight but thankfully, it will not rock our planet.
After tonight’s celestial event, NASA does not expect any space rock to flyby Earth’s neighbourhood in near future.
