Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will make a close approach to Earth on April 29. The hefty space rock has an estimated diameter of 1.1 to 2.5 miles (. Massive asteroid won’t be hitting Earth on Saturday, NASA says. Of asteroids this size, McDowell said, “This is an existential threat in the long term for our species.”.

The object never posed any harm but was an ideal test case for NASA planetary defense teams to test their alert system.Next Five Close ApproachesAverage distance between Earth and the moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers).The Asteroid Watch Widget tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth. The Widget displays the date of closest approach, approximate object diameter, relative size and distance from Earth for each encounter.

The object's name is displayed by hovering over its encounter date. Clicking on the encounter date will display a Web page with details about that object.The Widget displays the next five Earth approaches to within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers or 19.5 times the distance to the moon); an object larger than about 150 meters that can approach the Earth to within this distance is termed a potentially hazardous object. Survivalcraft demo pc.