The potentially dangerous asteroid 2023 FM is larger than a 40-story building and will arrive 7.5 months from Earth on Thursday, April 6, according to NASA. According to the data, a skyscraper-sized asteroid flying through space at a speed of 56,000 km/h will come relatively close to Earth on Thursday, April 6, and pass by our planet about 7.5 times. between the earth and the moon. NASA. Fortunately, the fleshy space rock will pass our planet more than a million miles.

Astronomers estimate the asteroid, designated 2023 FM, to be between 393 and 853 feet (120 to 260 meters) in diameter, roughly the height of a 40- to 80-story skyscraper, according to NASA’s statement. At its closest approach on Thursday afternoon, the asteroid will pass within about 1.8 million miles (2.9 million kilometers) of our planet and will be well beyond the orbit of the full moon.

The enormous size of the space rock, combined with its disturbingly close orbit, earned it the name Potentially Dangerous Asteroid (PHA); that means a space rock that can exceed 140 m in diameter and can be as close as 4.65 million miles (7.48 million kilometers) from Earth, according to NASA’s system for classifying near-Earth objects.

NASA monitors thousands of PHAs because even a small, unexpected change in an asteroid’s orbit can lead to a fatal collision with Earth. Astronomers are constantly monitoring and mapping these orbits – and fortunately, no collisions with PHA are likely for at least the next 100 years.

In March, astronomers discovered an Olympic swimming pool-sized asteroid named 2023 DW that had a 1 in 600 chance of hitting Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046 – a far above average risk. But researchers from the European Space Agency have calculated the risk of a collision to be 1 in 1,584, meaning that the asteroid is almost guaranteed to melt, and scientists are no longer worried about it.

If a large asteroid appears on a direct collision course with Earth, humans may be prepared to deal with it. In September 2022, NASA’s Dual Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, dramatically changing the spacecraft’s trajectory(opens in new tab). Although Dimorphos never posed a threat to Earth, the mission proved a viable planetary defense tool to divert asteroids with missile strikes, as long as astronomers had several years (and preferably decades) to plan an attack, NASA said.