A ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid the size of a pyramid will skim past Earth tomorrow, NASA has revealed.
The asteroid, called 2014 TN17, is expected to come as close as 0.03404 astronomical units, or around 3 million miles, to Earth, at 11:34 GMT on Wednesday.
It’ll mark the closest the asteroid has got to our planet in more than than 100 years.
Asteroid 2014 TN17 is estimated to be around 540 feet in diameter, which is greater than the height of the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt (449 feet).
It’s also nearly twice the height of India’s famous Taj Mahal.
As 2014 TN17 flies past Earth tomorrow, it’ll be travelling at a speed of just over 48,000 miles per hour.
That’s roughly 60 times the speed of sound!
While the asteroid is classified as ‘potentially hazardous’, thankfully NASA says the might space rock poses zero risk of hitting us.
The asteroid, called 2014 TN17, is expected to come as close as 140,000 miles to our planet – even closer than the moon (artist’s impression of an approaching space rock)
NASA lists it as one of the upcoming close approaches on its online tracker, which compiles upcoming objects that are getting closer and closer to Earth.
An asteroid is defined as ‘potentially hazardous’ if it comes within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65 million miles) of Earth and is larger than 459 feet (140 meters) in diameter.
Asteroid 2014 TN17 meets both these specifications set by NASA, which is constantly tracking space objects using its powerful ground-based and space telescopes.
Hypothetically, if 2014 TN17 were to impact our planet it would be large enough to wipe out a city, but not large enough to wipe out life on Earth.
However, the space rock has no chance of hitting Earth tomorrow.
‘2014 TN17 is pretty large, definitely big enough to hypothetically flatten a major city, but there’s absolutely no risk of it hitting Earth,’ said Dr James O’Donoghue, astronomer at the University of Reading.
‘These kinds of flybys happen more often than most people realise.’
At 3.1 million miles away, 2014 TN17 will around 13 times further away than the moon to us – which is too far see with binoculars or a telescope.
NASA has classified 2014 TN17 as a ‘potentially hazardous asteroid’ due to its predicted close pass with Earth. Pictured is its elliptical orbit in relation to planets in the solar system
Discovered 11 years ago, asteroid 2014 TN17 has a highly ‘elliptical’ orbit – one that’s not perfectly circular – that takes it around the sun once ever 1,240 days (3.39 years).
Just like planets, comets and other objects in the solar system, asteroids orbit the sun due to our star’s immense gravitational pull.
Due to its relative proximity to Earth, the asteroid is classed as a near-Earth object (NEO) – a term which can either refer to comets or asteroids.
A NEO is defined as such when it comes within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) (120.8million miles) of the sun and hence within 0.3 AU (27.8million miles) of Earth’s orbit.
‘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 neighbourhood,’ said NASA.
‘Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
‘The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.’
According to NASA, there are an estimated 11,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than 460 feet (140 metres) in diameter and 870 larger than 3,280 feet (1km) in diameter.
On average, Earth is hit by a football pitch-sized rock every 5,000 years, and a civilisation-ending asteroid every one million years, according to its Near-Earth Object Program.
It is estimated that there are about 11,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than 460 feet (140 metres) in diameter. And there are also an estimated 870 larger than 3,280 feet (1km) in diameter highlighting the need to keep track of these space rocks
Another asteroid, 2024 YR4, recently made headlines when NASA revealed it has a chance of hitting Earth in December 2032.
However, Earthlings were relieved last month when NASA greatly reduced the risk of impact to just one in 26,000.
If we imagine that an asteroid is definitely on course for Earth, humanity’s best chance may be deflecting it off course by intentionally hitting it with a spacecraft.
NASA demonstrated that this form of sophisticated planetary defence technique is indeed possible back in 2022, when its DART craft hit the asteroid Dimorphos.
Unfortunately, there are some types of space rock that could prove difficult or impossible to deflect with any such manmade object, a recent study suggests.
‘Rubble pile’ asteroids – such as Itokawa around 1.2 million miles away – are made up of loose boulders and rocks that have clumped together under the influence of gravity, so much of them are empty space.
Such an asteroid would act as a ‘space cushion’ in that it would absorb any impact energy and carry on its trajectory, the study authors claimed.