Asteroid set for a near miss with Earth

AN ASTEROID as big as a house is set to hurtle past our planet, far inside the Moon’s orbit, say astronomers.

The rock will zoom by on October 12 about 27,300 miles away – an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, the European Space Agency said.

Rolf Densing, of the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, said: ‘It’s damn close. The farthest satellites are 36,000 kilometres [22,400 miles] out, so this is a close miss.’

But experts said the asteroid, which first passed Earth in 2012 at double the distance, did not pose a threat.

Detlef Koschny, of the ESA, said: ‘We know for sure there is no possibility for this object to hit the Earth.’

The asteroid, named 2012 TC4, is 49-98ft long, and was travelling at nine miles per second when spotted.