Asteroid Warning: 2008 KV2 To Skim Earth At 25,400mph On June 27

A space rock that is thrice the size of a football field is expected to skim the Earth this week. The asteroid called 2008 KV2 is expected to pass by a distance of about 4.2 million miles away from our planet on June 27. Although the event will occur far away, it would still be notable.

To understand the distance of 2008 kV2's distance from Earth, the moon is about 238,900 miles away from Earth, and the space rock is more than 17 times that distance. The asteroid was discovered in 2008 and turned out it is a frequent visitor. Similar to Earth, the asteroid orbits the Sun. The space rocks will skim the Earth at more than 25,400 mph.

After the upcoming flyby, the 2008 KV is expected to pass our planet again in 20021 and twice in 2022, claims NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
The US space agency is paying close attention to the space rock because it is a near-Earth object (NEOs) that orbits in the zone between 91 million and 121 million miles from the Sun. NASA on its websites explains that an object is called a NEO if "it can pass within about 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit."

2008 KV2 is passing with 0.05 astronomical units (AU) of Earth, and due to its gigantic size, it's considered a "potentially hazardous asteroid," states the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at JPL.

Besides, ESA predicted that Asteroid 2006 QV89 has a 1-in-7000 chance of colliding with Earth in September this year. ESA has categorized the upcoming asteroid under the risk list, which is a catalog for space objects for which the space agency has detected a non-zero probability. The space rock measures 40 meters in diameter and has been listed on the fourth spot in the risk list.

Previously, a space rock called the 1999 KW4 passed by the Earth and it was so huge it brought along its own moon as well. The asteroid was around 1.5 km wide which is around three times the size of its moon, which is around 0.5 km.