The speedy asteroid is trapped in a so-called Earth Close Approach trajectory, meaning it will come incredibly close to our planet. NASA expects the space rock, dubbed Asteroid 2019 KH1, will fly by on the morning of Sunday, June 2. The close-shave will occur sometime around 9.10am UK time or 4.10am Eastern Time in the US. When this happens, Asteroid KH1 will break speeds of 18.52km per second or 41,428mph (6,673kph).
Asteroid KH1 is an Apollo-type space rock belonging to a family of objects named after the Asteroid 1862 Apollo.
Apollo asteroids whizz around the inner circles of the solar system, without escaping the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars.
According to the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, Apollo asteroids are known for frequently striking planets.
The university explained: “They have sizes less than 10km (6.2 miles) and form the majority of the population of Earth-crossing and Potentially Hazardous asteroids.”
READ MORE: How often do asteroids hit Earth?
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, estimates KH1 measures somewhere in the range of 72.2ft to 160.7ft (22m to 49m) in diameter.
When a smaller 65.5ft (20m) rock exploded over Russia’s Chelyabinsk Oblast in 2013, more than 7,000 buildings were damaged in the airblast.
Thankfully, NASA does not expect Asteroid KH1 to come close enough this weekend to sound the alarm bells.
Even at its closest, the asteroid will miss the Earth by approximately 0.02722 astronomical units (au).
READ MORE: Watch a major asteroid DESTROY Earth in fiery crash simulation
A single astronomical unit measures the distance from the Sun to the Earth, which is about 93 million miles (149.6 million km).
The means Asteroid KH1 will skim the Earth from a safe distance of 2.5 million miles (4.07 million km).
However, on the cosmic scale of distances, this is still an incredibly close encounter with the rogue object.
NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth.
READ MORE: NASA sheds light on a daring asteroid defence plan
“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
After KH1 swings past our planet on Sunday, the asteroid will make three more close approaches in the future.
The next close approach will occur on the morning of May 24, 2065.
After that, the space rock will fly by again on June 14, 2141, and December 4, 2144.
