Large meteorite discovered hurtling towards Earth

A large asteroid is heading towards Earth and is set to make a close flyby of our planet at 1/8 the distance to the Moon.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said it will take this opportunity to test its ability to deal with threats from space asteroids.

RT (Russia) channel quoted information from NASA saying that the asteroid 2012 TC4 is approaching Earth at a speed of 14km/s, expected to fly past our planet's orbit at a distance of 43,500km on October 12.

Initial estimates released by NASA in July suggested the space rock – first discovered five years ago – would fly by much closer, at just 6,700km. 2012 TC4 is between 10 and 30m in diameter.

While this “visitor” poses no threat to Earth, NASA will use it to test its ability to “recover, characterize, and report on a potentially hazardous object approaching Earth.” Specifically, it will test the performance of the worldwide asteroid tracking and detection network and assess the ability to collaborate to find a truly potential asteroid threat.

Measuring 10 to 30 meters in diameter, 2012 TC4 is predicted to be as large or larger than the 10-ton Chelyabinsk meteorite. In 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteorite fell in Russia, damaging hundreds of buildings and blowing out thousands of windows. About 1,200 people needed medical help after the incident, but fortunately no one died.

The bright light of the Chelyabinsk meteorite was seen from many parts of Russia and Kazakhstan.

According to VNN