On 1st September this year, an asteroid is expected to brush past the Earth. This asteroid is called ‘2011 ES4’, measures 49 meters in diameter and is expected to pass by at a distance of 71,805 kilometres from the Earth, which is five times less than the distance between us and the Moon!
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NASA considers the asteroid to be ‘potentially hazardous’. However, the government agency is not too concerned due to the fact that ‘2011 ES4’ is still considered to be relatively small.
Can asteroids cause damage?
NASA says that the asteroid could cause damage similar to that which was caused by the Chelyabinsk meteorite. In February 2013, in Chelyabinsk in Russia, an asteroid exploded into the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a large blast of energy in several places and resulting in residents feeling a shock wave.
Around 112 people had to hospitalised with some people injured by glass debris and others experiencing eye problems as a result of the brightness of the asteroid, which is said to have been 30 times more intense than that of the Sun!
