The warning from NASA comes as Asteroid 2019 TW1, which measures around 16 meters in diameter, was predicted to speed past the planet. The asteroid, which measures to be almost twice as big as a traditional London bus, was only detected over the weekend. The rock was detected ravelling at a monumental speed of more than 26,170mph.
NASA predicted the huge rock will arrive close to Earth around 8.09am BST (7.09am UTC) today (Tuesday, October 8).
Asteroid 2019 TW1, a small Near-Earth Object or NEO, will swing by on a “close approach” trajectory.
The space rock was also only first observed by trackers just three days ago, on October 5, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.
Since, NASA has used a number of observations to detect Asteroid 2019 TW1’s orbit, size and speed.
Asteroid 2019 TW1 is believed to measure somewhere in the range of 24ft to 52.5ft (7.3m to 16m) across. The length of a London bus measures at 36.5ft.
NASA said: “An NEO includes any asteroid, meteoroid or comet orbiting the Sun within 18,600,000 miles (30 million km) of Earth’s orbit.
“As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth.
“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms, millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
READ MORE: Asteroid alert: NASA confirms huge rock soaring near Earth
If the asteroid was to make contact with the planet, because of its small size it would likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Asteroid 2019 TW1 was predicted to speed past today at a distance of just 351,373 miles (564,480 km).
This is a distance of about 0.00378 astronomical unit (au), the measurement used by astronomers.
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One AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, around 150 million kilometres.
The space agency says than anything which comes within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) is classed as a NEO.
After speeding past the planet, Asteroid 2019 TW1 is not expected to return to Earth’s location in space in the near future.
The rock is just one of seven asteroids predicted to skim past our planet today.
NASA said: “Near-Earth Objects (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.
“As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the solar system formation process, comets and asteroids offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago.
“If we wish to know the composition of the primordial mixture from which the planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process – the comets and asteroids.”
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