Asteroid bigger than Empire State Building to pass by Earth on January 20: NASA

A huge rocky asteroid which is approximately 68.7 meters wide, is expected to pass by Earth safely on Thursday, January 20. The size of asteroid 2022 AB is projected to be roughly 361 feet wide, which is 56 feet more than the Empire State Building's height. According to NASA, the near-Earth object will make its closest approach to Earth at around 6:50 PM EST on January 20, 2022.

As per NASA, the near-Earth object is expected to zip past Earth on January 20. Asteroid 2022 AB is expected to be larger than the Statue of Liberty. This particular asteroid is expected to pass about 2.3 million miles away from Earth before shooting off into space without any problems. As per the space agency, the asteroid should be travelling at around 13,000 miles per hour.

Giant asteroids to pass by Earth

Apart from the 2022 AB, asteroids 2022 AE6, 2022 AX4, 2018 PN22 are also expected to zoom past Earth in the coming days. According to NASA, no known asteroid poses any form of risk to impact Earth over the next 100 years. "The highest risk of impact for a known asteroid is a 1 in 714 chance of impact by an asteroid designated 2009 FD in 2185," NASA’s planetary defence website adds.

Earlier on Tuesday, a huge asteroid which was approximately 3,280 feet wide or about 2½ times the Empire State Building's height, passed by Earth safely.

Curiosity rover detects carbon signatures on Mars 

In what could prove to be a breakthrough finding, NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected carbon signatures in the rock samples that it scooped from Mars. NASA revealed that the Curiosity samples were powdered rocks and the type of carbon detected is similar to the one which is associated with biological processes here on Earth.

However, the agency clarified that this finding does hint towards the evidence of ancient life as scientists have not yet found conclusive supporting evidence of ancient or current biology there. In order to confirm any presence of life, there must be a presence of sedimentary rock formations produced by ancient bacteria, or a diversity of complex organic molecules hinting towards life.

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