Huge asteroid 3 times the size of Big Ben to zip past Earth this weekend, Nasa warns
A MASSIVE asteroid three times the size of Big Ben will make a close approach with Earth this weekend, according to Nasa.
The space rock is travelling at over eight miles per second (14km/s) and will make its close approach on Sunday morning.
Known as 2010 FR, the object is not expected to hit our planet and poses no threat to Earth.
It’ll fly by at a distance of roughly 4.6million miles (7.4million km), according to Nasa’s Near Earth Object tracker.
That’s about 19 times the distance from Earth to the Moon, which may sound a long way, but is relatively close in space terms.
Nasa considers anything passing within 120million miles of Earth a Near Earth Object (NEO).
Thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet. One small change to their trajectories could spell disaster for Earth.
Sunday’s NEO is up to 885ft (270m) across, according to Nasa, making it three times the size of the tower that holds Big Ben (314ft or 96m).
Its flyby will take place at around 8:38am BST (3:38am ET) on September 6.
Astronomers are currently tracking nearly 2,000 asteroids, comets and other objects that threaten our pale blue dot, and new ones are found every day.
Earth hasn’t seen an asteroid of apocalyptic scale since the space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs 66million years ago.
However, smaller objects capable of flattening an entire city crash into Earth every so often.
One a few hundred feet across devastated 800 square miles of forest near Tunguska in Siberia on June 30, 1908.
Luckily, Nasa doesn’t believe any of the NEOs it keeps an eye on are on a collision course with our planet.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
That could change in the coming months or years, however, as the space agency constantly revises objects’ predicted trajectories.
“Nasa knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small,” Nasa says.
“In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years.”
Even if they were to hit our planet, the vast majority of asteroids would not wipe out life as we know it.
“Global catastrophes” are only triggered when objects larger than 3,000 feet smash into Earth, according to Nasa.
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In other news, it recently emerged that an asteroid obliterated early human civilisations in a catastrophic collision with Earth 13,000 years ago.
Scientists recently discovered a “Super-Earth” 31 light-years away that humans could one day colonise.
And, distant planets may host even more life than we have here on Earth, according to one shock study.
Are you worried about an asteroid strike? Let us know in the comments!
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