It has long been recognized that an asteroid collision was the most likely factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs.
According to the Alvarez hypothesis, a nearly 65 million years ago asteroid impact killed off all dinosaur species.
Scientists have also found the impact crater, known as the Chicxulub crater, buried beneath the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, adding further evidence to support this theory.
As per the hypothesis, the impact of the asteroid would have caused the formation of huge tidal waves and an impact crater almost 140 km wide.
Land debris would have splashed into space, transforming the planet into a nuclear winter and ultimately causing the extinction of dinosaurs.
NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has designated this space rock as Asteroid 2023 UH. The asteroid will pass Earth today, October 20, at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers.
Asteroid 2023 UH
With an orbital speed of roughly 39932 kilometers per hour, barely below the speed of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), it is already speeding into a near encounter to Earth.
This asteroidal object is a member of the Apollo group of Near-Earth Asteroids, which consists of asteroids that cross the Earth and have semi-major axes that are greater than Earth's.
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These asteroids were found in the 1930s by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth and are named after the enormous 1862 Apollo asteroid.
The asteroid's size has also been confirmed by NASA, and it is far less than 492 feet, therefore it cannot be categorized as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid."
How big is it?
It is almost as wide as an airplane, measuring between 52 to 118 feet.