NASA is closely monitoring the movement of an asteroid large enough to destroy a city, which is predicted to fly past Earth this afternoon.
The announcement of the agency states that the asteroid named 2012 DA 14, with a diameter of 45 meters, will fly by at about 20 thousand kilometers from the Earth in about 25 hours and 27 minutes our time.
"That distance is far enough from our planet and the group of satellites orbiting it, including the International Space Station.
"However, the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA 14 is predicted to occur at the shortest distance from Earth for an object of that size," NASA said.
Scientists say that the asteroid that will pass by the Earth today is nowhere near as big as the one with a diameter of ten kilometers that wiped out the dinosaurs from the face of the planet, but if it hits the Earth's surface, it could destroy a large urban area.
Astronomers announce that the asteroid will be visible in Eastern Europe, Australia and Asia, agencies report.
"With the help of a small telescope, you will be able to see something like a star, that is, a smaller source of light that moves while other stars are in the background," said scientist Tim Spar from the Center for Astrophysics of the Harvard Smithsonian Institute.
NASA estimates that smaller asteroids like 2012 DA 14 pass close to Earth every 40 years on average, but only hit Earth once every 1.200 years.
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