NASA: Brooklyn Bridge-size asteroid to pass near Earth 

An asteroid almost as big as New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge is set to pass close to Earth on Thursday, said NASA, who labeled the object as “potentially hazardous.”

The asteroid, known as DB5, measures 1,600 feet long, making it the largest of the next five asteroids that are scheduled to pass by our planet, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Despite passing relatively close to Earth for an anterior, it will be around 2.6 million miles from our planet and poses no threat of collision. However, the size of the asteroid and the proximity at which it will pass still falls within what the laboratory considered to be “potentially hazardous.”

The Jet Propulsion Lab, managed by the California Institute of Technology, tracks any comet or asteroid that will pass within 4.6 million miles from Earth. Any object found anywhere within this distance that is larger than 492 feet (150 meters) is considered hazardous, according to the lab.

As of May 31, NASA has discovered more than 10,472 asteroids that are larger than 460 feet. However, the agency claims that there are about 15,000 more that still have not yet been discovered. 

This is not the first time that DB5 will pass close to Earth. Its orbit brought it close to Earth six times since 1905, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). The last time was on June 23, 1995. It is predicted to approach Earth once again on May 2, 2048.

According to CNEOS, the asteroid is traveling at a speed of 30,500 miles per hour (13.63 km/second).

In the last 30 days, there have been seven known near-earth asteroids that have been spotted, and 105 within the last year.