EKATERINBURG, October 20. /TASS/. Several dozens of asteroids may approach to a hazardous distance to Earth in the next 100 years, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ space astronomy department told TASS on Tuesday.
Among them are asteroids exceeding 100 meters in diameter and travelling at a distance of 7.5 million kilometers from Earth, Lidia Rykhlova said.
NASA earlier announced an unexpected flyby of an asteroid estimated to be between 280 to 620 meters and expected to approach Earth on October 31.
"This asteroid poses no threat to Earth and Moon," Rykhlova said. "It will hardly go astray and move towards our planet."
Meanwhile, Professor Viktor Grokhovsky of the Urals Federal University said meteorites could be more dangerous to Earth than asteroids.
"Large asteroids attack the planet two-three times in a century," he said.
According to scientists, not only asteroids are dangerous for the Earth but meteorites as well. The biggest ones can clash with the Earth two-three times a century, but all of such objects are observed by the scientists.