Asteroid 2020 QL2 will hurtle past the Earth and the Moon, in what NASA has described as a ‘near Earth’ approach, on Monday, September 14. The asteroid is estimated to be as large as 400ft (120m), making it almost the size of the iconic London Eye.
NASA estimates the rock could be anything between 53m and 120m, making it potentially one of the largest rocks on their NEO Earth Close Approaches list.
Asteroid observers at US-based space agency NASA have revealed the space rock is currently travelling at 10.5 kilometres per second, or 23,666 mph.
Such speeds mean the asteroid could travel from the UK to New York more than eight times in an hour.
However, the asteroid will safely pass our planet at ten times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, some 4,259,235 miles away.
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Despite this seemingly enormous distance, NASA has described it as a ‘near-Earth object’ (NEO).
The US space agency says: “Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourrhood.”
Asteroid 2020 QL2 was first sighted on August 14 this year, with its most recent sighting being on September 3, according to NASA data.
NASA has categorically confirmed the space rock will not hit Earth.
While the chances of an asteroid big enough to destroy a city is about 0.1 percent in any given year.
The space agency adds: “No one should be overly concerned about an Earth impact of an asteroid or comet.
“The threat to any one person from auto accidents, disease, other natural disasters and a variety of other problems is much higher than the threat from NEOs