A huge asteroid is about to fly past Earth – and it’ll be getting a bit too close for comfort.
The asteroid, named 2022 YS5 by Nasa, is set to fly past us at a staggering 13,980mph on Thursday, July 17.
The US space agency confirmed that YS5 poses no threat to our planet – but at 120ft in diameter, similar in size to a 10-storey building, the asteroid is no small fry.
YS5 is going to pass Earth at a distance of about 2.58million miles. This may seem far away, but in cosmic terms, it’s pretty close.
Thankfully, even at its large size, it’s too small to be classified as ‘potentially hazardous’.
Nasa will only use that classification if an asteroid is more than 275ft in diameter and passes within 4.6million miles of Earth, meaning YS5 falls short when it comes to size.
The space agency will closely monitor the asteroid, but at this point, it is not considered dangerous.
YS5 is considered an ‘Apollo-class asteroid’ because its orbit crosses the orbit of the Earth.
It orbits the sun every 369 days, five days longer than we take on Earth.
And Nasa predicts YS5’s close pass comes only two days before our planet’s next close encounter with an asteroid.
On Saturday (July 19) its Jet Propulsion Laboratory predicts another asteroid, named 2018 BY6 and almost double the size of YS5 at 210ft diameter, will come within 3.27million miles of Earth.
A much smaller asteroid, the 95ft diameter 2025 ME92, will come within 3.2million miles of us on Sunday, July 20, and then we’ll have a break from close encounters until 2019 CO1 comes within 4.2million miles of us on August 8.
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