A massive asteroid with a diameter similar to the length of ten buses is hurtling towards Earth at the speed of 26,000 miles per hour.
The space rock, which is called 2013 WV44, measures some 524 feet in diameter according to NASA.
Though the asteroid is capable of causing great calamity, experts confirmed that contact with Earth is not possible and that it will pass Earth at around 3 am EST on Wednesday.
It is projected that the asteroid will fly past our planet at a distance of up to 2.1 million miles.
NASA also revealed that the asteroid was classed as a near-Earth object despite the projections it will pass Earth at a distance greater than nine times the distance between Earth and the moon.
“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 neighborhood,” NASA explains.
“Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
“The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.”
While the asteroid is thanks to its distance from Earth and its size not classified as potentially hazardous, the rock still meets the criteria to be identified as a NEO.
According to NASA, a NEO is an object that comes within 27.8 million miles of Earth’s orbit.
What are your thoughts on this news? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends. For more news and stories, follow us on Facebook!