'Potentially hazardous' asteroid the size of a cruise ship will come closest to Earth yet in 2023

An asteroid, codenamed 1998 HH49, with the size of a cruise ship will be closest to earth on 17 October 2023, Newsweek reports.

‘Potentially hazardous’

NASA scientists have identified nearly thirty asteroids which have been marked as ‘potentially hazardous’. This is also the case with the 1998 HH49 asteroid.

An asteroid receives this designation if it comes close within 4.6 million miles of the Earth’s orbit and measures over 460 feet in diameter.

According to Paul Chodas, the manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, ‘potentially hazardous’ also stands for asteroids which could affect the Earth someday:

The potentially hazardous designation simply means over many centuries and millennia the asteroid's orbit may evolve into one that has a chance of impacting Earth.

‘Close’ in cosmic terms

In cosmic terms, ‘close’ means hundreds of thousands of miles away, The Science Times reports.

In the case of 1998 HH49, when it will be closest to Earth, they will be 730,000 miles apart, which is approximately the equivalent of three times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

The next time 1998 HH49will come close to Earth is projected by NASA to be in 2163 when it will be within a proximity of 400,000 miles.

Asteroids are rock formations that are composed of materials left over from the formation of the solar system. They orbit the sun and are typically located in what is called the asteroid belt, which is located between the planets Mars and Jupiter.

Sources used:

-Newsweek: ‘Huge Asteroid Will Be One of the Closest Approaches to Earth Next Year’

-TheScienceTimes: ‘Asteroid 1998 HH49: The Closest Asteroid To Approach Earth Floating by October 2023’