The Apollo-type asteroid, dubbed Asteroid 2018 SM2 and measuring more than 490 ft (150 m) in diameter, will zip past after 2am on Wednesday, October 3.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, estimates Asteroid SM2 will be closest to Earth at around 1.12am UK time or 1.0-2 am UTC.
Asteroid SM2 will then be followed by a much smaller space rock, Asteroid 2018 TC2, around 6.16am BST (5.16am UTC).
The asteroids’ arrival also comes after tiny Asteroid 2018 TA2 passes the planet around 2.29pm BST (1.29pm UTC) today.
Tomorrow’s asteroid is the largest of the three, measuring anywhere between 219.82 ft and 492.12 ft (67 m and 150 m).
If NASA is correct about the asteroid’s upper size estimate, Asteroid SM2 is bigger than Big Ben’s clock tower, the London Eye and the Statue of Liberty in New York.
But even the smaller size estimate predicts an incredibly formidable asteroid.
At 219.8 ft, the asteroid’s diameter is approximately the equivalent of six London double-decker buses lined up in a row.
If an asteroid of this size hit a city, the results could be absolutely catastrophic.
Thankfully the space rock will avoid a collision with Earth from a relatively safe distance.
NASA estimates Asteroid SM2 will fly by at about 0.02915 astronomical units (au) or 11.35 Lunar Distances (LD).
One au is the equivalent of the distance from Earth to the Sun and Asteroid SM will close the distance down to more than 2.7 million miles (4.36 million km) form our home world.
This is the equivalent of more than 11-times the space between the Earth and the Moon.
Asteroid hunters might be fooled into thinking this is far from a close brush with the space rock, but the flyby is close enough for NASA to pay close attention to it.
Close asteroid encounters like this are known as Earth Close Approaches and the asteroids are dubbed Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) as a result.
NASA explained: “NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program is responsible for finding, tracking, and characterising near-Earth objects – asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them within approximately 1.3 Astronomical Units of the Sun.
“This implies that they can come within 0.3 AU – about 30 million miles, or 50 million kilometres – of Earth’s orbit.”
According to NASA’s JPL, Asteroid 2018 SM2 was first observed on September 2, 2018, hence its name.
The space rock has an orbital period of more than 1,256 days, meaning it is unlikely we will see it again any time soon.
NASA does not expect the asteroid to make another Close Approach to Earth after tonight’s pass.
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