A huge asteroid is set to fly past the Earth on 31 May 2013. Asteroid 1998 EQ2 is 2,7 kilometers long and will make its closest pass to Earth. The origin of the asteroid is unkown but scientists suspect that the “sooty substance” covering the space rock could suggest that it was a comit that flew too close to the sun according to Amy Mainzer. Mainzer tracks near-Earth objects. Another possible answer for its origin is that it may have ‘leaked’ out of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The asteroid’s closest approach will be 5,79 million kilometers from Earth. Lance Benner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory principal investigateor for Goldstone radar observations, said:

With radar we can transform an object from a point of light into a small world with its own characteristics.

Don’t fear, the possibility of the asteroid hitting Earth is unlikely, and it will only pass by the planet again in 2119. Mainzer said:

This is a really big asteroid, similar in size to the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and it’s getting very close to us…Fortunately we’ve been tracking its orbit very carefully so we know with great certainty it won’t hit us.

We don’t need to panic, but we do need to pay attention.

[Source: Phys.org]