This week, an asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower will have a “close call” with Earth as it passes within 1.5 million miles, travelling at a speed of 38,922 miles per hour.

This massive space rock, known as asteroid 2006 HV5, has a diameter of 984 feet and is a rare sight, with a rarity ranking of “two” in NASA’s Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies database, indicating that on average, only one asteroid of this size comes close to Earth per year.

According to Dr. Susanna Kohler, an astrophysicist at the American Astronomical Society, the asteroid “2006 HV5 will not be visible to the naked eye.”

She explained that asteroids do not “emit their own visible light,” but instead are observed through the “sunlight” they reflect.

Even at its closest approach, the asteroid will only be bright enough to be detected by larger telescopes.

However, Dr. Kohler reassured that NASA is confident that the asteroid poses no immediate threat to Earth.

Dr. Kohler added that thanks to 260 observations made over the past 17 years, astronomers are able to accurately calculate the orbit of 2006 HV5, enabling them to determine its past, present, and future locations with great precision.

According to the US Space Agency, asteroid 2006 HV5 falls under the category of “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid,” of which there are only a few thousand in our solar system.

However, this classification may not necessarily mean that these space rocks pose an immediate threat to Earth.

The Potentially Hazardous Asteroid label is assigned to those objects that meet two specific criteria.

Firstly, their orbit brings them within 4,600,000 miles of our planet, which is equivalent to 18 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Secondly, they must be larger than a certain threshold size, at least 460 feet wide, as determined by measuring their apparent brightness.

Thankfully, if any of these asteroids were to pose a threat to Earth, NASA is actively developing plans for a planetary defense system.

In September of last year, the US Space Agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorphous.

The purpose of the collision was to assess the effectiveness of a simple, kinetic impact approach that could alter an asteroid’s momentum and deflect it away from a collision course with Earth.

This test proved to be successful and is an important step forward in ensuring the safety of our planet from potential asteroid impacts.

After the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Dimorphous, Dr Cristina Thomas and her colleague at Northern Arizona University commented on the outcome.

“DART needed to demonstrate that an asteroid could be targeted during a high-speed encounter and that the target’s orbit could be changed.”

According to their analysis, they concluded that “DART has successfully done both.”

Asteroid 2006 HV5 is a member of the Aten group of asteroids, a collection of space rocks whose orbits bring them into close proximity to Earth.

The Aten group was named after the first asteroid of its kind to be discovered, 2062 Aten, which was spotted in 1976 by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at the Palomar Observatory.

There are currently 2,445 known Aten group members, with 101, including 2006 HV5, classified as potentially hazardous asteroids.

Thirteen of the group’s members have been given names inspired by mythology and history, with Aten being named after the ancient Egyptian god.

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