An asteroid 165 meters high, comparable to the historic Italian building of downtown São Paulo and larger than the Giza Pyramid (147 meters), from Egypt, passed by the earth on the morning of Wednesday, 26, NASA said, the US space agency.
According to US organ calculations, the distance from the celestial body (2014 TN17) to our planet was approximately 5.1 million kilometers, considered large but enough for the agency to point it as “potentially dangerous” (PHA) due to its size.
According to NASA, the PHAs are asteroids that approach the earth at a distance less than 7,480,000 km or have a diameter above 140 meters. In the case of 2014 TN17, the size of its diameter could vary between 130 meters and 290 meters.
Potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAS) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the potential that the celestial body has to make threatening land approaches, says the US space agency.
“Asteroids that cannot come closer to the earth than 0.05 AU (approximately 7,480,000 km or 4,650,000 miles) or are smaller than about 140 m are not considered PHAS (potentially dangerous asteroid),” adds NASA.
The AU is an astronomical unit of measure that corresponds to 149,597,870 kilometers.
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The level of rarity of the 2014 TN17, based on its size, was one within the scale established by the agency. This means that, at least once a month, an asteroid of this proportion goes beside the earth.
