A huge and ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid is headed towards Earth, Nasa has warned.
The monster space rock is believed to be up to 470 metres wide, which is large enough to wipe out an entire city if it hit our planet.
Truly heartbreaking picture of man crying as he eats his Valentine's meal alone
Nasa named the object 2017 VR12 and listed on its ‘Earth Close Approaches’ website. It will zoom past Earth on March 7.
If the asteroid is as big as expected, it could have a surface area of almost 55 acres.
Buckingham Palace takes up about 19 acres, with its gardens occupying another 40 acres.
The queen-sized space rock will zoom past at about 14,092 miles per hour at about four times the distance between the Earth and Moon, or 897,161 miles.
Luckily, it’s not going to hit us, but if it did it would release more energy than all the nuclear weapons detonated in the entirety of human history.
The impact would create a crater of more than two miles wide, killing millions if it hit a populated area.
However, our species would probably live to fight another day following this disaster.
More: World
‘We’re not talking about an asteroid that could destroy the Earth,’ Nasa investigator Dante Lauretta told Space.com last year whilst discussing a similarly-sized asteroid.
‘We’re not anywhere near that kind of energy for an impact.’
MORE: Eerie skull-shaped ‘Halloween Death Asteroid’ will return to Earth next year
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