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Huge asteroid will whizz by Earth tomorrow!

asteroid-next-to-earthImage source, Getty Images

A huge asteroid - twice the size of New York's Empire State Building - is going to fly past earth tomorrow, according to Nasa.

But don't worry, the space rock won't be close enough to cause any problems!

The asteroid will be about two million miles away, which is roughly eight times further from the Earth than the moon.

As it whizzes past us, the asteroid will be travelling at around 23,300 miles per hour, or about 30 times the speed of sound.

Measuring between 350 to 780 meters in diameter, the asteroid will pass by in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Nasa considers any object within 120 million miles of the planet as a Near Earth Object (NEO), and any object within 4.65 million miles as 'potentially hazardous'.

Any such objects are closely monitored by astronomers to make sure they won't come near Earth.

Image source, Getty Images
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According to Nasa, Earth is hit with up to 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles every day!

The asteroid was first discovered in January 2008 by astronomers at the Mt Lemmon SkyCenter in Arizona, in the US, and last passed by Earth in March 2015 - meaning, it makes a fly-by every seven years.

Its next close fly-by isn't expected to happen until May 2029, according to NASA.

If astronomers ever do spy an asteroid flying straight at Earth, space agencies around the world are already working on ways to possibly deflect the object.

Last year, Nasa launched it's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which plans to redirect an asteroid by ramming it off course.

Did you know?

According to NASA about once a year an asteroid the size of a car will hit the Earth's atmosphere, but burns up in an impressive fireball before hitting the Earth!