An asteroid the size of a minibus travelling at 33,300 miles per hour will pass Earth at around 12.30am UK time on Friday morning, and it will be as close to the Earth's surface as London is from Crete - 2,500miles. The space rock, which has been named 2023 BU, will be one of the closest passes of an asteroid in 300 years according to Nasa's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
The asteroid was only discovered last weekend, but scientists are confident it won't hit the earth and if it did come any closer it would burn up in the atmosphere in a spectacular fireball. You will be able to watch the asteroid pass our planet on a livestream courtesy of robotic, remote-controlled telescopes as part of the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) that is being operated by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Ceccano, Italy.
The approach will be closer to the Earth than some satellites, which orbit at 22,000 miles.
