An asteroid with diameters between 22 and 49 metres will safely pass by planet Earth on September 1, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Station (NASA) website.
The large near-Earth asteroid is called 1998 OR2, and will make its closest approach to earth at 5.55 am EDT (2.55 am PDT) on Tuesday. Although astronomers say that this will be a “close approach”, it is still very far away.
Considering the near proximity of the asteroid, the NASA Asteroid Watch tweeted, “ Will #Asteroid 2011 ES4 hit Earth? No! 2011 ES4’s close approach is “close” on an astronomical scale but poses no danger of actually hitting Earth.”
It also included that the asteroid will pass by “at least 45,000 miles (7,92,000 football fields) away”.
The website stated that it will get no closer than about 6.3 million kilometres (3.9 million miles) and will pass more than 16 times farther away than the Moon.
The asteroid has been tracked since July 1998, and hence astronomers say that it will pose no impact for at least the next 200 years.
Still, the 1998 OR2 is filtered under a “potentially-hazardous asteroid” category, because very slight changes in the asteroid's orbit may cause it to present more of a hazard to Earth than it does now.
The next close approach of the asteroid to Earth will occur in 2079, when it will pass by closer — only about four times the lunar distance, the website added.