IT’S a close encounter that’s almost earth-shattering.
A large asteroid will fly close to our planet this month but scientists are promising the human race that the space rock will not smash into the Earth and kill everyone.
NASA said the “relatively large” asteroid will fly past Earth on April 19 but will miss our little blue dot by a distance of around 1.1 million miles.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said: “Although there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size.”
The asteroid was discovered by astronomers in 2013 from a sky survey in Arizona.
Scientists estimate that the asteroid is about 2,000 feet in size and has a surface twice as reflective as the moon.
The space object is expected to become visible in the sky after April 19 and could be seen through a telescope for one or two nights.
The flyby is the closest that an asteroid has come to Earth for at least the past 400 years.
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