A HUGE asteroid is set to make a “close approach” to Earth this week.
Nasa has listed Asteroid 2022 MD on its Earth Close Approaches table.
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The US space agency thinks the space rock could be up to 292 feet wide.
That would make it the same size as around 10 large killer whales.
An asteroid like that would do quite a bit of damage if it hit Earth.
However, Nasa is expecting Asteroid 2022 MD to fly past us safely on June 26.
The asteroid should stay about 3.3million miles away from Earth.
That may sound pretty far away but in the grand scheme of space this isn’t a large distance at all.
That’s why Nasa has still flagged it as a “close approach”.
If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles and is over a certain size, it’s considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.
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The large space rock should shoot past Earth at around 19,000 miles per hour.
Its closest approach will be on the evening time of June 26.
Plans to save Earth from asteroids
Some experts are worried that Earth isn’t yet ready to defend itself from potentially deadly asteroids.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk once sparked concern by tweeting: “a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defence.”
Nasa is looking into some defence methods though.
It recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
Nasa said: “DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.”
The DART craft should slam into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September with the aim of moving it off course.
