Potentially Hazardous Asteroid to Fly Close to Earth

Astrogeology, Asteroids, Robots, Space Flight & Extraterrestrial Matters

Date posted: 09/03/14

A potentially hazardous asteroid the size of three football fields will come uncomfortably close to Earth early on Tuesday. The space rock, known as 2000 EM26, poses no threat and will pass the Earth at just under nine times the distance to the moon, The Guardian reports. But it is defined as a potentially hazardous near-Earth object - NEO large enough to cause significant damage in the event of an impact. Scientists estimate the asteroid, travelling at 27,000 mph, is 270 meters - 885 feet - wide. At its closest approach at 2 am UK time, the rock will be 2.1 million miles from Earth, or 8.8 lunar distances.