A doomsday asteroid will hit Earth next month, claims Russian astronomer

But NASA rejects warning, says it will pass 32 million miles away from our planet

Last year Nasa detected an object, that could be a comet or an asteroid, on a path towards Earth. The space agency has said the mysterious object will safely pass Earth at a distance of nearly 32 million miles (51 million kilometres) on February 25th.

But one self-proclaimed astronomer has come up with an alternative theory, suggesting the asteroid will crash into Earth on February 16th and trigger a mega-tsunami, according to reports.

The strange object, named 2016 WF9, was discovered last year.

Over the course of 4.9 Earth-years, it has travelled inward, passing under the main asteroid belt and the orbit of Mars until it will swing just inside Earth's own orbit.

The object, which is a blurred line between an asteroid and a comet, was discovered by Nasa's NEOWISE mission.

Self-proclaimed Russian astronomer Dr Dyomin Damir Zakharovich said it is heading straight towards our planet.

'The object they call WF9 left the Nibiru system in October when Nibiru began spinning counter clockwise around the sun,' he said.

'Since then, Nasa has known it will hit Earth. But they are only telling people now.'

If the asteroid hits Earth, he says, it could destroy cities or cause a tsunami. 'We are all in peril.'

Nasa does not think the object will hit Earth, instead it is saying it will pass nearly 32 million miles (51 million kilometres) away from the planet.

'The trajectory of 2016 WF9 is well understood, and the object is not a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future,' says Nasa.

What scientists do know is that 2016 WF9 is relatively large: roughly 0.3 to 0.6 miles (0.5 to 1 kilometre) across.

It is quite dark, reflecting only a few per cent of the light that falls on its surface.

Its body resembles a comet in its reflec- tivity and orbit, but appears to lack the characteristic dust and gas cloud that defines a comet.

'2016 WF9 could have cometary origins,' said Deputy Principal Investigator James 'Gerbs' Bauer at JPL.

But, according to reports, Dr Zakharovich has said his 'data' reveals a different background.

He claims the comet or asteroid originated from the fictional planet Nibiru.

'The object they call WF9 left the Nibiru system in October when Nibiru began spinning counter clockwise around the sun,' he said.

Conspiracy theorists believe the planet Nibiru is set to hit into our planet in October this year, after being driven here by the gravitational pull from a 'binary star' twinned with the sun - of which there is no evidence.

Nibiru, sometimes referred to as Planet X, is a hypothesised planet on the edge of our solar system.

'Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an internet hoax,' Nasa has said. 'Obviously, it does not exist.'

Nibiru is a different planet to the Planet Nine, which is also sometimes referred to as Planet X, that was proposed by astronomers in Caltech in January last year.