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Do you despise both teams in the Super Bowl and a rooting for an asteroid to hit the Earth instead of seeing the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles play? You’re almost in luck because an asteroid will buzz Earth only hours before Super Bowl 52, but it will not strike the Earth. Many fans have been begging for an asteroid to smash Earth to save us from allowing the Patriots or Eagles from winning the 2018 Super Bowl (As seen HERE). It turns out that on Super Bowl Sunday, a few hours before the big game, Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will come within 2.6 million miles of our planet, which in cosmic terms is super close.
NASA is calling asteroid 2002 AJ129 a “potentially hazardous object” (PHO), but they designate that warning to any “near-Earth asteroid or comet with an orbit such that it has the potential to make close approaches to the Earth and is of a size large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact.” To be classified as a PHO, the object must be at least 460 feet in diameter and orbits within 4.65 million miles of Earth. The asteroid is said to be the size of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world’s tallest skyscraper. The fast-moving asteroid will be buzzing Earth at 76,000 miles per hour. So you won’t get an asteroid strike causing years of a mini Ice Age, but you can still root for a sinkhole to swallow both the Eagles and Patriots at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.