The imposing asteroid, dubbed by NASA Asteroid 2008 HS3, is flying towards Earth on a so-called “Earth Close Approach”. NASA predicts HS3 will shoot past our home planet in the late hours of Thursday, May 9. The US space agency’s asteroid trackers further estimate HS3 will close in on Earth around 11.03pm BST. This piece of information is absolutely vital because the asteroid measures somewhere in the range of 393.7ft to 886ft (120m to 270m) in diameter.
At the upper end of NASA’s size estimate, HS3 is nearly twice as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Cairo, Egypt.
Even at the lower end of the scale, Asteroid HS3 is still taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York, US, and Big Ben’s clock tower in London, UK.
It would take approximately 14.5 London double-decker buses lined up in a row to match the asteroid.
Any object this big could be absolutely cataclysmic if it came into contact with our home-world.
NASA said: “Space rocks smaller than about 25m, about 82ft, will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere and cause little or no damage.
We believe anything larger than one to two kilometre could have worldwide effects
NASA
“If a rocky meteoroid larger than 25m but smaller than one kilometre, a little more than 0.5 miles, were to hit Earth, it would likely cause local damage to the impact area.
“We believe anything larger than one to two kilometre – one kilometre is a little more than one-half mile – could have worldwide effects.”
Thankfully, NASA’s orbital projections at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) show HS3 will pass Earth from a close but safe distance.
Asteroid HS3 is a prime example of what astronomers describe as “Near-Earth Objects” or NEOs.
NEOs are all comets and asteroids on orbital paths shorter than 120.8 million miles (194.5 million km) from the Sun.
Occasionally, NEOs will cross paths with the Earth to varying degrees – some fly by closer than others – but rarely does an asteroid come within striking distance.
NASA said: “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.”
On Thursday, NASA expects HS3 to zip by from a safe distance of approximately 3.47 million miles (5.59 million km).
This is the cosmic equivalent of 14.54 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
After the asteroid safely swings by Earth, it will make another close approach on the afternoon of April 26, 2030.
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