Cosmic connection? Huge asteroid to skim past Earth a day ahead of royal wedding
Posted May 18th, 2018, 12:08 PM IST
The day before Prince Harry and Meghan tie the knot at Windsor, an asteroid is expected to come extremely close to the Earth’s surface. The asteroid called JPL 8, is due to fly past the planet around 2.21am Friday morning.
JPL 8 is estimated to be roughly between 49 and 110m in diameter, or about the size of an average football field. It is heading towards Earth at a rapid speed of 13.9 kilometres per second or more than 3,000 miles per hour.
It’s not the only object threatening life on the planet as we know it as in just over a week’s time an even bigger asteroid is expected to fly past the Earth.
This asteroid, categorised as a 2018 GL1, is roughly 68 metre-wide and will speed by on Saturday morning approaching as close as approximately 14.3 Lunar Distances from Earth, or more than 3 million miles.
Around 100,000 people are expected to gather outside Windsor Castle on Saturday May 19 for the wedding, but they can rest easily, because by the time Harry and Meghan exchange their vows at St George’s Chapel, the asteroids will have safely flown past our planet.
Even though hundreds of asteroids come relatively close to Earth every year, only a few of them come close enough to be considered a Near Earth Object (NEO) threat by NASA.
2018 GL1 is technically a NEO but the chances of it hitting Earth are very small. NASA said: ‘Every day, Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles. ‘About once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits Earth’s atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface.
‘Every 2,000 years or so, a meteoroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage to the area. ‘Only once every few million years, an object large enough to threaten Earth’s civilisation comes along.
‘Impact craters on Earth, the moon and other planetary bodies are evidence of these occurrences.” Roughly 14 asteroids are due to fly past Earth this month alone, with the next one approaching Earth, called 2016 JQ5, expected to fly past the planet today.
However stars do not seem to be in favour of Meghan Markle who has been distraught over the absence of her father to her wedding to walk her down the aisle.
Thomas Markle has said that a heart surgery has left him unable to come and he has given his ‘blessing’ to Markle’s mum to do the honours.
Kensington Palace issued a statement on behalf of Meghan stating,
View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
Kensington Palace
?
@KensingtonRoyal
A statement from Ms. Meghan Markle:
3:56 PM - May 17, 2018
30.6K
6,662 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
- Kukatpally, Old City and Tolichowki made their mark as the city's top street food hubs
- Political leaders attend grand Alia Balai programme in Hyderabad
- Over 7,500 daily steps before surgery tied to fewer complications
- Deepika talks mental health with corporate bosses
- Sweet Shop - Owners of Calcutta and Other Ideas: Taste the universe
- Life in motion
- Witness The Most Riveting Courtroom Drama of The Year
- Mind-Body Synergy: Embracing Profound Connection Between Mental and Physical Health
- Red Haute Alert
- WWF-India Hosts Second Earth Series Talk: "A Tale of Two Cats"
- Hyderabad entrepreneurs ‘Modify’ clothes from aloe vera to orange peel
- How to Apply Onion Juice to Hair
- Patriotism is in thing, it’s Tricolour everywhere
- Celebs too wear fakes of reputed brands
- Elon Musk on fun trail says 'buying Coca Cola next'
More Lifestyle News
- Aditi Rao Hydari misses ‘Heeramandi’ event after wedding
- Bigg Boss winner Munawar Faruqui among 14 detained in Mumbai raid
- Mrunal Thakur follows ‘grandma diet,’ believes in not skipping meals
- Selena Gomez shares makeup-free selfies on Instagram
- Diljit collaborates with Saweetie for ‘Khutti’ Song, says ‘she just landed in Punjab’
- Malaika Arora, Arjun Kapoor, Richa, Ali Fazal, Farah, and more at KJo’s Bash
- Jamie Lever is ‘honoured’ to represent her heritage with Telugu debut film
- Janhvi and Aditya Roy Kapur shine on the ramp for Kalki at Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI
- I am fond of Kate Moss, says Diana Penty, about her fashion icon
- Kriti Kharbanda, Pulkit Samrat share pictures from dreamy wedding
A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0
Filename: views/newsdetails.php
Line Number: 29
Backtrace:
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/views/newsdetails.php
Line: 29
Function: file_get_contents
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 135
Function: view
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 83
Function: newsdetails
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/index.php
Line: 315
Function: require_once
A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: file_get_contents(http://www.indiaaffiliates.in/ads.php?size=300X250): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found
Filename: views/newsdetails.php
Line Number: 29
Backtrace:
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/views/newsdetails.php
Line: 29
Function: file_get_contents
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 135
Function: view
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 83
Function: newsdetails
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/index.php
Line: 315
Function: require_once