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Asteroid 2020ND

  • 20 Jul 2020

  • A gigantic and ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid named as Asteroid 2020ND, measuring 170 metres will make a close approach to our planet.
  • The asteroid will come within just 0.034 astronomical units (AU) of the Earth on July 24.
  • An astronomical unit is equal to about 150 million kilometres or roughly the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
  • Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs.