NASA is tracking the path of a huge asteroid that will come hurtling past Earth at a staggering speed of 35,000mph later today.
The giant space rock, Asteroid 2025 BS4, is 23 feet wide and weighs nearly 4,500 kilograms.
Experts say the enormous rock would equal the force of 19,000 tons of TNT if it collided with the Earth.
That means it is powerful enough to completely level any large city.
Luckily, it is expected to soar past our planet from a safe distance – 511,000 miles away. That is around double the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
The asteroid, like many others, is a result of the asteroid belt ejecting a rock that makes its way to the Earth’s gravitational pull.
However, it is still classified as a Near Earth Object (NEO).
NEOs are asteroids or comets that can come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit, according to NASA JPL.
According to figures from NASA, 37,264 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered and monitored.
22025 BS4 is not the only near-Earth object set to fly by. The 100-foot 2025 BH2 will pass 4,280,000 miles away today, the 36-foot 2025 BF5 will come within 797,000 miles tomorrow, and the 51-foot 2025 BS2 will pass at 2,330,000 miles on Wednesday.
And many similar objects have flown past Earth in recent months and years.
During the summer, a giant 7,500 feet wide asteroid the size of Mount Everest came hurtling past Earth.
The European Space Agency said in an announcement: “The asteroid is larger than 99% of all known near-Earth objects.”
Yet, to those in fear, they confirmed: “It won’t come anywhere near as close to Earth. At its closest point on June 27, it will still be more than 17 times as far away as the Moon.”
However, the huge space rock was still considered a “potentially hazardous asteroid”.
Gianluca Masi, astrophysicist and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project, said: “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) is a precise formal definition, referring to minor planets larger than approximately 460 feet that can come within 4.6 million miles from the Earth.”
This “does not mean they are going to hit the Earth, but they nonetheless warrant a better monitoring”, Masi added.
