Asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth in more than a century Monday night
LOS ANGELES - While stargazers got the chance to see the pleasant sight of the Full Hunter’s Moon over the weekend, a massive 111-foot asteroid that’s expected to skim uncomfortably close to Earth Monday night is a stark reminder that outer space can be dangerous.
According to NASA’s JPL, the giant space rock known as 2019 TA7 will skim past Earth at a distance of roughly 930,000 miles, travelling roughly 22,500 miles per hour at approximately 6:53 pm ET on Monday.
The asteroid, which was first observed last week on Oct. 9, is going to be making its closest approach to Earth in nearly 115 years.
![Orbital-Diagram.jpg](https://images.foxtv.com/static.fox32chicago.com/www.fox32chicago.com/content/uploads/2019/10/932/524/Orbital-Diagram.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
An orbital diagram from NASA's JPL shows just how close 2019 TA7 will approach Earth at approximately 6:53 pm ET on Monday.
But doomsday preppers need not kick things into overdrive, since the size of the asteroid shouldn’t come as a concern to our species.
At nearly twice the size of the infamous Chelyabinsk meteor, it will most likely burn up most of its mass in Earth’s atmosphere — but that doesn’t mean it’s completely harmless.
As many may remember, On Feb. 15, 2013, a 65-foot meteor crashed into a small city in Russia called Chelyabinsk, resulting in the damage of 7,200 buildings and leaving 1,500 people injured.
While 2019 TA7 is making is closest pass by in nearly a century, it’s not nearly as close as the “city killer” that came within 43,500 miles of Earth in July, closer than the distance of the moon.