Massive Asteroid Is Heading Towards Earth, and Twitter Is Done With 2020

It seems as though the skyscraper-sized asteroid that’s currently hurtling toward planet Earth couldn’t have come at a better time — at least as far as some Twitter users are concerned. The asteroid has been estimated to be between 830 and 1,870 feet in length, which could potentially make it taller than the Empire State Building in New York City. However, the most current models show that the asteroid will be “skimming” Earth’s orbit as it passes by.

So far, 2020 has included a global pandemic, record-high unemployment, and riots protesting police brutality erupting across the U.S. Now, NASA has classified the body as an Aten asteroid, which is due to its very wide orbit around the sun. Right now, it’s heading towards the Earth at a speed of about 11,200 miles per hour and due sometime on Saturday. However, NASA predicts that it will miss the planet by more than 3 million miles given its current trajectory.

Although it’s worth noting that NASA has labeled the asteroid as a “Near Earth Object,” which is used to describe “comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighborhood.” While unlikely, it is being closely tracked on the off chance it could end up inside our atmosphere. Which, again, didn’t sit well with several on Twitter, given how well things have gone this year.

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