NASA has raised a heads-up about a massive asteroid—measuring roughly 370 feet in diameter, about the height of a 35-storey building—hurtling toward Earth at blistering speed. The space rock, designated 2023 KU, is expected to zip past our planet on Friday, April 11, 2025, at 9:05 PM IST, travelling at an estimated 64,827 km/h.
Although the asteroid is projected to miss Earth by a relatively safe margin of 1 million kilometers, its sheer size and speed have prompted scientists to keep a close watch. Asteroids of this scale, while not uncommon, are capable of catastrophic impact if their paths are altered by gravitational interactions or undetected anomalies.
What is 2023 KU and Why Does It Matter?
2023 KU belongs to the Apollo group—a class of near-Earth asteroids whose orbits intersect Earth’s path around the Sun. These space rocks are regularly tracked because, even if they pass by safely, there’s always a slim chance their course could shift unexpectedly.
What If It Hit Earth?
If 2023 KU were to collide with Earth, the damage could be devastating. Experts estimate that an impact would unleash energy on par with multiple nuclear explosions, capable of flattening cities and wiping out entire regions. For context, the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 was just 59 feet wide—a fraction of 2023 KU’s size—yet it injured over 1,500 people and damaged thousands of buildings.
Who’s Keeping Watch?
The task of monitoring potentially hazardous objects like 2023 KU falls to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), supported by a global network of observatories. Telescopes such as Pan-STARRS and Catalina, along with radar systems like JPL’s Goldstone Radar, play a crucial role in tracking these fast-moving objects and refining their trajectories.
So while 2023 KU is not expected to hit Earth, it serves as a reminder of the dynamic and sometimes unpredictable nature of our cosmic neighborhood.
