This weekend, two enormous asteroids will whizz past our planet, NASA has revealed.
The first asteroid, called 2010 C01, is estimated to be around 120 to 260 metres in diameter. At the higher end of that estimate, that’s about the same size as the QE2.
Meanwhile, the second asteroid, called 2000 QW7, is estimated to be up to 650 metres in diameter, indicating it could be the same size as the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
Thankfully, NASA has ruled out any chance that either asteroid could pose a threat to our planet.
Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Planetary Defence Coordination Office at NASA, said: “These asteroids have been well observed—once since 2000 and the other since 2010—and their orbits are very well known.
“Both of these asteroids are passing at about 14 lunar distances from the Earth, or about 3.5 million miles away, but small asteroids pass by Earth this close all the time.”
2010 C01 will safely pass Earth at 04:42 BST tomorrow morning, while 2000 QW7 will pass later at 12:54 BST.
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), including asteroids and comets, are tracked and monitored by NASA’s Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies.
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So far, NASA has discovered more than 20,000 NEOs, with an average of 30 new objects discovered every week.
Thankfully, there are currently no asteroids or comets on a collision course with Earth, according to NASA.
However, the US space agency’s chief, Jim Bridenstine, warned earlier this year that a killer asteroid could smash into the Earth within our lifetime, unless we do more to protect the planet.
“This is not about Hollywood, it’s not about the movies,” Bridenstine said. “This is about ultimately protecting the only planet we know, right now, to host life – and that is the planet Earth.”