The celestial body will fly past the planet already on September 6.

A small asteroid will fly by the Earth on September 6 at a speed that is 10 times faster than the speed of a bullet. According to The Jerusalem Post, the diameter of the celestial body designated 2022 QC7 is 16-36 meters, according to NASA data.

For comparison, 36 meters is about half the wingspan of a Boeing 767 jet plane. But the asteroid is notable for hurtling towards Earth at a speed of 9.10 kilometers per second, or 32,760 kilometers per hour. This is about 10 times the speed of an average NATO rifle bullet.

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According to NASA, there is no chance that the asteroid will hit the Earth. It will fly at a distance of 4.6 million kilometers from the planet. For comparison, the Moon revolves around the Earth at a distance of 384 thousand kilometers.

But even if 2022 QC7 crashes into the planet, it won’t do much damage. Simulations carried out by scientists from the Weizmann Institute showed that the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 140 meters could release an amount of energy that is a thousand times greater than the first explosion of an atomic bomb.

An asteroid with a diameter of 300 meters, for example, asteroid Apophis, can destroy an entire continent. But a celestial body with a diameter of one kilometer can lead to a global cataclysm.

In the event that 2022 QC7 falls to Earth, it will at best cause a loud explosion in the upper atmosphere. Physical damage will be minimal, if any at all.

At the moment, scientists know about 29,000 near-Earth objects. Some of them, based on the size and distance to the planet, belong to the category of potentially dangerous. But despite the name, there is no chance that any of these objects will collide with Earth in the coming centuries.

In November, NASA launched the DART device, which should crash into the satellite of the asteroid Dimorpha and change its trajectory. However, simulations conducted by scientists have shown that this collision may not happen exactly as expected.