A huge asteroid the size of theLondon Eyeis due to pass close to Earth in just a couple of days.
Asteroid 2023 NR1 is expected to pass our orbit at a distance of around 696,239 miles which means it sits within the category of “Close Approach”.
The exact diameter of NR1 is not known, but near Earth monitoring serviceThe Centre For Near Earth Object Studiesreckons it will have a diameter of at least 57m and at most could be as big as 130m.
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That means it could be bigger than the iconic London landmark, which has a diameter of 120 meters.
The huge wheel towers over the city and puts into context the sheer scale of NR1.
It’s not going to be hanging around either and will be travelling at around 15 kilometres per second in relation to its distance to Earth.
In other words, that’s around 33,995 miles per hour.
Working out exactly when an asteroid will pass by Earth isn’t always simple to do, however, the service reckons that NR1 will likely swish by our orbit on July 22 so there is just a few days to go until it passes by and gives us a wave.
The “Near Earth Object (NEO)” is unlikely to cause any problems for life on Earth, but it does serve as a scary reminder of the very large lumps of, potentially planet-killing, rock that are flying around in relatively close terms to our planet.
What is remarkable, and arguably particularly scary, about NR1 is the 2023 part of its name, which means it was only discovered this year.
Almost all NEOs need specialist gear to be seen from Earth.
"Asteroids don’t emit their own visible light, so we primarily observe them via the sunlight that they reflect," Dr Susanna Kohler from the American Astronomical Society previously said of asteroids.
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