Trio of asteroids will make ‘close approach’ to Earth on Valentine’s Day

NASA is keeping an eye on three asteroids that will be making a ‘close approach’ to Earth this Valentine’s Day.

The US space agency thinks the largest of the rocky trio could be up to 154 feet wide.

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That’s over half the size of the Statue of Liberty which stands at 305 feet.

The largest space rock should be shooting past us first in the early of February 14.

It’s called 2022 CF3 and it should rocket past us from a distance of 1.5million miles away.

The first Valentine’s Day asteroid should be travelling at just under 9,000 miles per hour.

A million miles may sound pretty far away but in the grand scheme of space this isn’t a large distance at all, so 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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None of the three Valentine’s Day asteroids is particularly large for space rocks, and none are expected to hit Earth.

The other two asteroids are called 2020 DF and 2022 CF1.

Nasa thinks the former could be up to 112 feet wide and the latter up to 92 feet wide.

These Valentine’s Day asteroids should pass us in the evening while many people will be enjoying a romantic night out.

Asteroid 2020 DF should come around 933,000 miles away from Earth.

Asteroid 2022 CF1 should come within 3million miles of Earth.

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

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.

In other news, Nasa has solved a 30-year-old Jupiter mystery that’s left scientists confused for decades.

Astronomers have observed a red giant star dying in real-time for the first time ever.

And, Nasa has revealed the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk