The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has warned that a giant asteroid almost the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza will pass by the Earth today.
The 120-meter (394-foot) asteroid, scientifically named 2024 JZ, will fly past Earth at a staggering 56,000 miles per hour (90,123 kilometers per hour) – 65 times faster than a bullet.
But there is no need to go to the Doomsday Bunker yet, as the asteroid will safely pass by the Earth at a distance of 4.2 million kilometers.
Although this distance sounds far away, the asteroid is still classified as a "near-Earth object" (NEO) by NASA.
Dr Edward Blumer, senior astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told MailOnline: "Today's skimming is completely fine, it's not something we should be worried about. ”
NASA writes: "NEOs are comets and asteroids that are attracted by the gravitational pull of nearby planets and derailed from their orbits and enter the adjacent regions of the Earth. They are mostly made up of water ice and embedded dust particles, with comets initially forming in cold outer planetary systems, while most rocky asteroids form in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. ”
NEO is defined as any celestial body within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) (120.8 million miles) from the Sun and therefore within 0.3 AU (27.8 million miles) of Earth's orbit.
An asteroid is defined as "potentially hazardous" if it is within 0.05 AU (4.65 million miles) of Earth and is greater than 140 meters (459 feet) in diameter.
Although the 2024 JZ will be at an absolutely safe distance of only 0.028 AU from Earth, in astronomical terms, this is considered relatively close.
There will also be a closer bypass of an asteroid tonight, with an asteroid named 2024 JT3 that will pass within only 12,000 miles (19,300 kilometers) of Earth.
However, Juan Luis Cano of the European Space Agency's Office of Planetary Defense assured MailOnline that the Earth is "absolutely" safe.
"There is zero chance of hitting the Earth," Mr. Carno said. ”
"In any case, an object 5-10 meters in size usually disintegrates in the atmosphere and only releases some small meteorites to the ground," he added. ”
NEO is monitored by a network of professional and amateur astronomers who detect objects passing through the solar system.
Through their efforts, dozens of NEOs are discovered each month, and their paths can be predicted with a high degree of precision.
In fact, the passage of a large object like 2024 JZ through Earth's orbit is so routine that the European Space Agency has listed the asteroid as a "very frequent event."
The vast majority of these objects burn up in the Earth's atmosphere and are seen by us as meteors, rather than hitting the ground.
Every year, the Earth even passes through several dense clouds of debris left behind by comets that produce meteor showers like η Aquariids this month.
NEOs differ from these meteors in that they are large enough to have the potential to pass through the atmosphere undestroyed.
While today's close-up encounter is not a cause for concern, Dr Brummer said the risk of impact at some point in the future exists.
"We gamble on our luck every day," he said.
"If the 2024 JZ is in a threat interception trajectory, it will be a big problem because it is a fairly large block of rock and moving quite fast."
During the 1908 Tunguska event, an asteroid less than half the size of 2024 JZ exploded over the Siberian forest, leveling 830 square miles of trees.
Similarly, Dr. Brummer noted that the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which damaged 7,200 buildings and injured 1,491 people in Russia, was only 20 meters (65 feet) in diameter.
Most worryingly, the Chelyabinsk meteorite was not detected before when it hit Earth.
As Mr. Carno explains, while there is currently no threat, "the real problem is that there is still a lot of NEO to be discovered." ”
Fortunately, NASA has invested in ways to protect the Earth from the effects of an upcoming asteroid.
In November 2021, the space agency launched the DART mission, crashing a satellite into the side of the Dimorphos asteroid, about 6.8 million miles (10.9 million kilometers) from Earth.
This test showed that by hitting an asteroid with a small satellite early enough, a small impact can propel it into a safe orbit when it reaches Earth.
"If you can get there faster and earlier, then you actually need to make a smaller impact to create a bigger deflection over time," Dr. Brummer said.
"And if you don't detect something until it's too late, then you have to make more effort to deflect it in time."
While the mission may have been just an exercise, it proved that with enough advance warning, the planet can be saved.