Asteroid to skim past Earth this month

Caption: Asteroid travelling at 14,400 miles to skim past Earth Credit: Shutterstock

According to NASA an asteroid is set to skim past Earth on the 14 September.

NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies has revealed the asteroid is travelling at a speed of about 14,400 miles per hour and will pass 3.3 million miles from Earth. Any celestial material within 92.9 million miles is considered a near-Earth object.

Asteroid 2000 QW7 is between 290m and 650m long and will make its closest approach to Earth on 14 September. By comparison, London’s tallest building, the Shard, measures 310m.

The Sun-orbiting asteroid passes Earth roughly every 20 years and last passed by on 1 September, 2000.

The US space agency said there was no risk of the asteroid colliding with Earth, but NASA chief Jim Bridenstine has previously warned that there may be a deadly asteroid in the relatively near future.

Scientists believe an asteroid roughly 30 times the size of Asteroid 2000 QW7 was responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs. Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX) warns ‘a big rock will hit Earth eventually and we currently have no defence’

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Cristina Hodgson

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