An asteroid larger than the Empire State Building is heading towards the Earth and will pass our planet this weekend. NASA has designated the rock, called 388945 (2008 TZ3), a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid because of its relative proximity to Earth.
The asteroid will pass by on Sunday, May 15 as part of its orbit of the sun, It passes close to the Earth every 732 days and two years ago came within 2.75million kilometers of our planet.
This time it is expected to be around 4million kilometers away.
Paul Chodas, director of the CNEOS at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, told ABC News Potentially Hazardous Asteroids are only relatively close to our planet - compared to the vastness of space.
He said: “Astronomically, these are coming close to the Earth. But in human terms, they are millions of miles away and can get no closer than millions of miles away.”
388945 is designated an Apollo-class asteroid, meaning its orbit crosses the Earth's orbit. The asteroid rotates on its axis every 39.15 hours.
