Three huge asteroids will skim past Earth this weekend, NASA warns

DAILY MAIL,9 NOVEMBER 2018- A trio of enormous asteroids will skim past Earth this weekend, NASA has warned.

Scientists predict that the largest of the space rocks, dubbed 2018 VR1, is up to 100 feet (30 metres) wide - as long as a blue whale.

NASA expects the asteroids to make ‘close approaches’ with our planet on Saturday.

Unfortunately, you would need a satellite to see them, as they are too small and too far away to be visible to amateur equipment.

The space rock 2018 VS1 is predicted to pass by Earth first by scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

It will skim our planet at a distance of just 861,700 miles (1,386,771 km) at around 2:03pm GMT (9:03am ET) on Saturday, November 10.

The asteroid measures between 42 and 92 feet (13 to 28 metres) across, but is not expected to hit our planet.

Just 16 minutes later, the largest of the three asteroids, 2018 VR1, will fire past Earth.

The space rock’s trajectory will take it to within 3.12 million miles (5 million km) of Earth

- a reassuring distance considering its size.

The final and closest flyby of the weekend will see the object VX1 pass Earth at around 6:21pm GMT (13:21 ET) on Saturday.

VX1 will shoot past Earth at a distance of just 237,037 miles (381,474 km) - closer to us than the moon.

While the distances may appear huge, Nasa classifies them as ‘close approaches.’

‘As they orbit the Sun, Near-earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth,’ the space agency said.

‘Note that a “close” passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.