Asteroid as big as a house to pass Earth inside moon’s orbit

AN ASTEROID the size of a house “will shave” past Earth inside the moon’s orbit in October.

Astronomers expect it to pass our planet at a distance of about 27,300 miles – an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

“It will not hit Earth,” said Detlef Koschny of the European Space Agency’s Near Earth Objects research team. “That’s the most important thing to say.”

The asteroid, named TC4, first flitted past our planet in October 2012 – at about double the distance. It is between 16 and 33 yards long.

Scientists expected the asteroid to return for a near-earth rendezvous this year, but did not know how far.

Now, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has managed to track down the rock and determine its distance.

“It’s damn close,” said Rolf Densing, who heads the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. However, he added it was nothing to lose sleep over. “As close as it is right now, I think this prediction is pretty safe... meaning that it will miss.”