Gigantic asteroid more than a kilometer will pass close to Earth

A giant asteroid, called AJ129-2002 and moving at full speed, will pass close to Earth on February 4.

As it is collected by the British newspaper Daily Mail, it is about 1.1 km wide and is traveling at around 107,800 km / h.

This makes it 15 times faster than the world's fastest manned aircraft, the American hypersonic X-15, which reaches speeds of 7,300 km / h.

Although the astronomers specified that AJ129-2002 will not impact our planet, the International Astronomical Union described it as "potentially dangerous". It is estimated that it will pass about 4,208,641 km away.

In this regard, Charles Bardeen, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, explained to the Metro newspaper that the impact of a 1-kilometer space rock would have "a very severe global impact," although he added that it would probably not kill the human race. .

In the worst case, the waste could remain in the atmosphere for about 10 years, blocking sunlight, which in turn would cause temperatures to drop. "It would not be pleasant times," said Bardeen.

It should be noted that Chicxulub, the meteorite that extinguished the dinosaurs and whose crater is located in the Yucatan Peninsula, would have had between 10 and 15 kilometers.

Meanwhile, another of the asteroids that will pass close to Earth during 2018 - specifically in November - will be TB145, whose shape resembles that of a skull.

As reported by the Spanish newspaper ABC, it is a "dead comet", that is, it has already lost all the ice and dust that formed its tail, so that only the rock remains.

The last time it passed close to Earth was on October 31, 2015, when it traveled 498,896 kilometers, equivalent to 1.3 times the distance between our planet and the Moon.