NASA says asteroid will fly startlingly close to Earth at speeds of over 28,000mph
NASA has confirmed that an asteroid the size of a commercial aeroplane is set to speed past Earth tomorrow afternoon.
The space agency stated that asteroid 2025 QD8 will come as close as 135,465 miles (218,009 kilometres) from us, which is roughly half the distance from the surface of Earth to the Moon.
Measuring anywhere between 55 and 124 feet (17 and 38 meters) in diameter, the asteroid was discovered earlier this year by astronomers from the Virtual Telescope Project. It's also expected to speed by at a blistering speed of 28,000 miles per hour.
Were 2025 QD8 to make direct contact with Earth, it would be considered a 'city-killer', however astronomers are keen to reassure people that 2025 QD8 will fly by at a safe distance and not cause any danger to life (via Space).
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How to watch asteroid 2025 QD8 as it travels past Earth
The asteroid is expected to skim across our planet at roughly 15:56 BST tomorrow (3 September) afternoon.
Unfortunately you won't be able to see the asteroid by simply going outside and staring up at the sky; however, anyone who is wanting to watch 2025 QD8 fly past can instead head over the a livestream set up by the Virtual Telescope Project, which begins at midnight tonight.
You can access the link here.
What would happen if an asteroid were to crash into Earth?
While asteroid 2025 QD8 is set to pose no threat to Earth, many space projectiles in the past have done so.
Earlier this year, NASA announced that an asteroid named 2024-YR4 had a 'a very small, but notable chance of impacting our planet in 2032'. At its highest, astronomers predicted 2024-YR4 had a 3.1% of hitting Earth on 18 February 2025.
Thankfully this estimation has since been lowered significantly, with experts now believing 2024-YR4 now has just a 0.004 percent chance of colliding with our planet on 22 December, 2032.
However, the likelihood of the asteroid colliding with the moon has since significantly increased, with astronomers previously predicting 2024-YR4 had a 3.8 percent chance of striking the moon. Fortunately, this is not expected to alter the moon's orbit.
NASA added that 2024-YR4 is 'now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes'. However, the US space agency expects to make 'further observations when the asteroid's orbit' when it comes back into orbit from 2028.
"The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don't bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact," NASA added.
Brenna Cooper