At a speed of 11.2 km per second, 1997 BQ, a meteorite 3 times longer than the Empire State Building (443 m high) in New York, USA, will fly over Earth at a safe distance. However, because of the large size of the 1997 BQ, NASA still classified it as "potentially dangerous" and closely monitored. 1997 BQ will fly 6.1 million km from Earth, 16 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. According to NASA’s NEO (NEO) tracking station, 1997 BQ will be closest to Earth at 3:45 am on May 22, Hanoi time.

Currently, astronomers are tracking nearly 2,000 asteroids, comets and objects that may threaten the Earth. Since the meteorite eradicated dinosaurs 66 million years ago, our planet has never encountered a similar disaster. However, small meteorites still frequently fall to Earth.

According to NASA, no large meteorite or comet is likely to hit Earth in the next few hundred years. But the agency still regularly rechecks the predicted flight paths of celestial bodies.