‘Christmas Eve Asteroid’ Would Flatten 700 Miles if It Impacted, Will Slip Past Earth on Dec 24

Outer space is sending Earth some early Christmas presents, but it may be just as well that at least one of them is way too far away to be opened.

NASA lists five asteroids as approaching Earth’s corner of the solar system in the coming days.

One of them will zip through space at 14,743 mph, passing Earth on Dec. 24.

Although the consequences of a collision would be tremendous, NASA says the asteroid will be 4.48 million miles away.

Huge ‘Christmas Eve asteroid’ the size of a 10-story building will skim past Earth at 14,743mph on 24 December, NASA warns https://t.co/R7tU5G6xHg pic.twitter.com/CoZZ0xsiYC

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) December 20, 2024

Jess Lee, astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, said there is nothing to fear, according to the Daily Mail, which dubbed the 10-story-tall asteroid the “Christmas Eve asteroid.”

“It will be very far away, around 18 times further away from the Earth than the Moon is, and so with this predicted path won’t come close enough to hit the Earth,” Lee said.

Estimated by NASA to be 120 feet long, the Mail said that if a collision took place, the impact would be the equivalent of 12 million tons of TNT exploding, which would an flatten an area of about 700 square miles.

#GRAVITAS | Scientists are closely monitoring an asteroid that is scheduled to pass Earth on December 24. The asteroid identified as 2024 XN1 was first spotted by NASA’s tracking system.@MollyGambhir reports pic.twitter.com/vr1VXuyZoZ

— WION (@WIONews) December 20, 2024

“If you’d like to compare it to a previous asteroid impact, the Tunguska Event in Russia in 1908 involved an asteroid which was a roughly similar size to this one,” Lee said.

“It exploded above the ground and knocked down 80 million trees. The energy comparison estimates have ranged from 3-30 megatons of TNT,” Lee said.

Bearing the prosaic name of XN1, the asteroid will zip by in 2032, passing 3.1 million miles from Earth.

The Mail said a piece of space rock dubbed 2013 YB might be on a collision course for Earth on Monday, but at less than 3 feet in diameter, it is likely to burn up in the atmosphere.

On Jan. 5, a 1,310-foot-long asteroid will be in the neighborhood.

But it won’t come closer than 2.29 million miles as it blasts through space at 49,660 miles per hour.

NASA has been developing a system to protect Earth in the event of a damaging asteroid heading for the planet.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, worked in 2022 to whack a 530-foot diameter asteroid moonlet, changing its course.

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