WATCH OUT! THERE’S AN ASTEROID ABOUT
And it’s going past us at 5.30am today
THE burning space matter called 2018 DV1 was only spotted on Monday and will swerve Earth by just 65,000 miles.
It has a diameter of between 20 to 40 feet and is the 18th known asteroid to career past Earth since the start of the year.
Its charge towards Earth will be available for everyone to see, with a virtual telescope project streaming its live descent from 5.30am today.
In February 2013, a similar piece of space matter exploded straight over Earth, creating an explosion above Chelyabinsk in Russia.
It scattered debris across the country and sent shock waves the equivalent of 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
More than 1,600 people were injured as the energy, the equivalent to 500,000 tonnes of TNT, smashed windows and damaged buildings.
While 2018 DV1 will travel a third of the distance between Earth and the moon, last month a space rock dubbed 2018 CB blazed past at just one-fifth of the distance.
At the time, Paul Chodas, from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said: “Although 2018 CB is quite small, it might well be larger than the asteroid that entered the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia.”
There is very little Nasa can do to deflect asteroids heading for Earth, but the organisation is trialing new technology to try to protect the planet from future rocks.
Boffins believe they have designed a refrigerator-sized spacecraft capable of intercepting asteroids from colliding with Earth. They plan to test it in 2024.