According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is monitoring the space rock, asteroid 388945 (2008 TZ3) will make its closest approach to our planet on May 16 morning.

This is not the first time that asteroid 388945 has come to us. It passed very close to Earth in May 2020 - at a distance of 1.7 million miles. According to scientists, while orbiting the Sun, the space rock regularly passes by the Earth every two years.

NASA has confirmed that the giant asteroid is 1,608 feet wide, while in comparison, New York's iconic Empire State Building measures 1,454 feet. The asteroid is bigger than the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.

Asteroid 388945 will pass near Earth:

If a space rock hits the Earth, it can cause huge damage. But according to their calculations, the asteroid will pass by Earth from a distance of about 2.5 million miles.

Asteroid 388945 came close to Earth in May 2020. The next time it will come closer is in May 2024, but even further away - 6.9 miles away. In May 2163, this time an equally large asteroid will come close again.

Asteroids:

Asteroids are small rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Asteroids revolve around the Sun in the same way as the planets, but their size is much smaller than the planets. They are also called minor planets.

According to NASA, the number of known asteroids is about 9,94,383, which were formed during the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

Classification: Asteroids are divided into three classes:

Group 1: Asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, estimated to contain 1.1 to 1.9 million asteroids.

The second group includes those Trojan asteroids, which share their orbit with a larger planet. NASA has given information about Trojan asteroids of the planets Jupiter, Neptune and Mars. In the year 2011, NASA also reported a Trojan asteroid near the Earth.

Third group: - This includes Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), whose orbit passes near the Earth. Those asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit are called Earth-crossers. A total of more than 10,000 Near-Earth asteroids have been reported so far, of which more than 1,400 are classified as 'Potentially Hazardous Asteroids' (PHAs).

NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Study determines the timing and distance of these asteroids (when they are closest to Earth).

Dart Mission:

Several agencies, including NASA, are preparing a plan to protect Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids. As a part of this plan, US space agency NASA has recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

The purpose of the Dart mission is to deflect an Earth-bound asteroid from its path through kinetic impact, meaning that the Dart craft will collide with the asteroid, intended to steer it out of the way.