Gigantic asteroid '2008 GO20' nears Earth, likely to pass on July 25

"This asteroid has visited earth at a much closer distance of 19 lakh km and 29 lakh km in 1935 and 1977 respectively. At that time, it flew away and never came towards the earth," said Dr Pattnaik.

New Delhi: Amid reports of a four football fields sized asteroid hurtling towards the earth, Dr Suvendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium in Odisha said that there is no need for anyone to panic as this same asteroid had flown past earth earlier as well and at a much closer distance. Dr Pattnaik also stated that there are no chances of '2008 GO20' asteroid colliding with the planet. He also added that this asteroid will again revisit Earth in 2034.  "We should not panic. We can safely say that it will not hit the earth," Dr Pattnaik told ANI.  "This asteroid has visited earth at a much closer distance of 19 lakh km and 29 lakh km in 1935 and 1977 respectively. At that time, it flew away and never came towards the earth. This time it is around 45 lakh km, which is about 11 to 12 times the earth-moon distance, so there is no danger of hitting the earth," he added.