The deadly asteroid, larger than a two-story house has been named by NASA as Asteroid 2018 WN. The enormous space rock is expected to skim past Earth making its closest appearance to our planet when it zips past at 11.49am GMT. Although NASA astronomers have calculated the asteroid is not on a trajectory to slam into our world, its destructive potential is nonetheless awe-inspiring.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists estimate the asteroid measures somewhere in the region of 40ft to 91ft (12m to 28m).
Asteroid 2018 WN may not spell the end of life on earth as we know it, but even the lower end of NASA’s estimate spells potential danger for heavily populated areas.
More than 1,000 people were injured in 2013 after a 65ft-wide space rock erupted over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.
The resulting impact shattered windows, sending shards of glass into victim’s bodies.
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According to Dr Matija Cuk, Cornell University in New York, impacts with these smaller asteroids are rare and there are no known instances of them being lethal.
The space expert said: “Concerning smaller meteorites that hit the ground, they are a very low hazard and no human was ever reported being killed by a small meteorite.
“I heard a story that a dog was killed by a meteorite that fell in 1911 in Nakhla, Egypt, and there were also instances of material damage.
“Still, traffic, pollution and even lightnings are much more dangerous than small meteorites.”
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Astronomers recently admitted the presence of undetected asteroids in our galaxy – some of which post a threat to life on Earth.
Researchers from University of Madrid have attempted to calculate the likelihood of large asteroids fragmenting into smaller pieces which will pummel our planet.
The products of “catastrophic” collisions are near impossible to track because of their “chaotic pre-impact orbits”.
And if an enormous asteroid made a trajectory with Earth it would leave no time to evacuate those in the firing line.
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The researchers wrote: “Asteroids may deliver meteorites to the inner planets when their paths intersect those of the planets at the proper times, leading to an impact.”
“On the Earth, meteorites collected after the observation of bright fireballs have sometimes been tentatively traced back to the near-Earth object population or collisional events in the main asteroid belt.”
The scientists discussed a recent impact by an object named 2018 LA, between nine and 12 ft wide, which collided Earth just hours after detection.
The asteroid hit Earth’s atmosphere at 38,000 mph, causing a terrifying fireball to streak across the sky over Botswana.
“This was a much smaller object than we are tasked to detect and warn about,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA Planetary Defence Officer.
In their new paper, the two Spanish researchers warned that just “three natural objects have been discovered before colliding with the Earth”.
It is possible that 2018 LA formed during a massive collision between two or more rocks in the asteroid belt – meaning more meteors are on their way.
The researchers discovered “well over two dozen” asteroids which “resemble” 2018 LA in terms of their size, shape and orientation in space.