The monstrous space rock, dubbed Asteroid 2018 EB, is expected to zip past the planet in the wee morning hours of Sunday, October 7.
According to NASA’s calculations, the asteroid will reach its closest distance to Earth at about 2.24am UK time (1.24am UT).
At its closest, NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) believes the space rock will reach 0.03956 astronomical units (au) or 15.4 Lunar Distances (LD) from Earth.
The distance in question measures roughly 3.67 million miles (5.9 million km) or more than 15 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
Stargazers might think this is too far away to be any real danger, but NASA classified the asteroid a so-called Near-Earth Object (NEOs) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA).
NEOs are all dangerous comets and asteroids on trajectories crossing Earth’s orbit from within 28 million miles (45 million km).
The giant space rocks are tracked by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory branch in Pasadena, California.
The US space agency said: “NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program is responsible for finding, tracking, and characterising near-Earth objects – asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them within approximately 1.3 Astronomical Units of the Sun.
“This implies that they can come within 0.3 AU – about 30 million miles, or 50 million kilometres – of Earth’s orbit.
“The Program is a key element of the Agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.”
PHAs are asteroids and comets on exceptionally close near-Earth trajectories, which measure more than 500 ft (140 m) in diameter.
NASA estimates Asteroid EB measures anywhere between 393.7 ft and 853 ft (120 m and 260 m) in diameter.
An asteroid impact on this scale could be absolutely cataclysmic if it struck the Earth.
The lower estimate suggests the asteroid is at least considerably bigger than London’s Tower Bridge – almost twice the size.
Asteroid EB is an Apollo-typed asteroid, because its path is similar to that of Asteroid 1862 Apollo.
The space rock was first observed on March 1 this year, and was also seen by NASA on September 29.
NASA estimates Asteroid EB has an orbital of period around the Sun of more than 374.6 days.
Based on EB’s orbital characteristics, NASA believes the asteroid has been making close approaches to Earth since at least March 25, 1904.
The last close approach was made on April 4, 2018, and the next will take place on April 7, 2019.
This Sunday, the asteroid will fly by the Earth at breakneck speeds of more than 33,867 mph or 15.14 km per second.