Is there an asteroid headed for earth?

While there are millions of asteroids out there in our solar system, very few are known to even potentially hit the planet and impact our home. However, scientists have spotted one a while ago and they believe its impact could be huge. What happens if an asteroid hits earth? Well, it depends on a number of factors.

The asteroid is named 2023 DW and was discovered just last month on February 26, reported the European Space Agency. It has been added to the ESA's Risk List which is a compilation of all the space objects that can have some sort of impact on Earth. Currently, 2023 DW ranks number one on this Risk List.

However, that does not mean catastrophic damage will necessarily happen.

On the Torino Scale, which measures the level of unusual danger, 2023 DW ranks 1, which means it is not predicted to have any unusual level of danger — nothing we have not seen before. Researchers have hypothesised that it is 50 metres in diameter. For better understanding, it is around the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Now how big is an Olympic size pool? That is for you to figure out. It could be larger than that, though.

This is not the biggest asteroid to hit earth, though. According to the Planetary Society, the biggest one was 65 million years ago and eliminated 70% of all life from the planet.

"Current calculations show the chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern," that ranking categorisation states. 

The other 1,448 asteroids on the same Risk List have a scale ranking of zero making this one more dangerous and impactful.

In a reassuring statement, ESA shared that "the asteroid has a 1 in 607 chance of impacting Earth." It will impact the earth at least 20 years from now. According to the ESA, the asteroid could interestingly hit the planet on Valentine's Day in 2046. It can hit after that as well, between 2047 and 2051, but same date: Valentine's.

According to NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, the risk of it colliding with or impacting earth is "very small".

So, is there an asteroid headed for earth? Yes. But is it likely that it will impact us? Maybe not.

"Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future," the office tweeted. "Orbit analysts will continue to monitor asteroid 2023 DW and update predictions as more data comes in."

Astronomer Piero Sicoli too believes that the possibility of the asteroid hitting is very low and that too will "soon be ruled out".