A 'Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Bigger Than Pyramid Of Giza Is Hurtling Towards Earth, Says NASA

A massive asteroid estimated to be double the size of a Boeing 747 is headed toward a close approach with Earth next week. Asteroid 2016 NF23 is expected to skim past us on August 29 at just over 3 million miles away, or about 13 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

That means even low-balling, the object is about as wide as the length of a Boeing 747 – and on the high end of the estimate, it could be double that. At 525 feet, it would be taller than Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands at about 455 feet. NASA tracks this and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) to keep track of any potential incoming threats. This particular space rock is classified within the ‘Atens’ group, named for asteroid 1862 Atens, because of its Earth-crossing orbit and smaller semi-major axis.

A diagram from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab shows just how its orbit intersects with Earth’s, with the asteroid getting closer and closer to our planet in the days leading up to August 29, when it reaches its closest point. At this time, it will be about .03 astronomical units (au) away – or about 3 million miles.

Asteroid 2016 NF23 also falls within the category of ‘potentially hazardous objects,’ which are those that reach a minimum distance less than .05 au from Earth and have an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or brighter. Asteroid 2016 NF23 has an absolute magnitude of 22.9. In recent years, NASA has turned its focus to finding near-Earth objects estimated to be larger than 140 meters, as 90 percent of those larger than 1 kilometer have already been located.

In comparison, just 10 percent of these smaller – but still potentially catastrophic – objects are thought to have been found to date.