'Potentially hazardous' asteroid size of Big Ben to hurtle past Earth tonight
dailyrecord.co.ukAn asteroid travelling at 29,000mph will pass by our planet tonight in what NASA has described as a 'near-Earth' approach.Asteroid 2023 JD2 is classed as 'potentially hazardous' because of how big it is, and how close it will get to Earth.
It's estimated that it's around the size of the Big Ben at around 200 ft large, and it'll fly past our planet just 3.4 million miles away.
It's set to appear at around 8pm tonight (Tuesday May 16) and is one of around 1,500 'potentially hazardous' asteroids that are currently known about.
Wales Online reports that an asteroid is a small rocky object that orbits the Sun. These celestial bodies are remnants from the early formation of the solar system, often referred to as "minor planets."Asteroids can come in a huge variety of sizes, from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres, and they're mostly made up of rock and metal.
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