Nasa says asteroid bigger than Statue of Liberty is heading for ‘close approach’ in DAYS

NASA is keeping a close eye on a huge “potentially hazardous” asteroid that’s on its way to Earth’s orbit.

The asteroid is set to make a close approach in early February but should shoot past from a safe distance.

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Nasa thinks Asteroid 2007 UY1 could be up to 492 feet wide.

That makes it much bigger than the Statue of Liberty.

The famous New York landmark stands at 305 feet high.

Nasa has put the asteroid on its ‘Earth Close Approaches’ list.

The good news is it’s not expected to hit Earth.

An asteroid of this size could do some serious damage.

Asteroid 2007 UYI should shoot past us on February 8 from a distance of 3.3million miles away.

In comparison, the Moon is only about 238,900 miles from us.

A few million miles may sound pretty far away but it’s actually quite close in terms of space.

Nasa considers anything passing near Earth’s orbit a Near-Earth Object (NEO).

Thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet.

Any fast-moving space object that comes within 4.65 million miles is considered to be “potentially hazardous” by cautious space organizations.

According to Nasa’s Asteroid Watch, the term describes a fast moving space rock that’s within 4.6 million miles of Earth and is over 460 feet wide.

One small change to a “potentially hazardous” asteroid’s trajectory could spell disaster for Earth.

In other news, Nasa has upgraded its asteroid hazard software with some key changes that should help it better detect potentially dangerous space rocks.

Nasa has revealed stunning footage of a solar flare in action.

And, the US space agency is planning for a ‘golden asteroid’ probing mission to launch this summer.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk