STONE'S THROW

Huge 360ft asteroid to skim past Earth at 27,000mph this week, Nasa reveals

AN ASTEROID that could be bigger than Big Ben is set to skim past Earth later this week – and Nasa has it on its 'close approach' list.

Asteroid 2010 AE30 will be passing nearby our planet on January 17 and could come within 2.8million miles of Earth.

Any fast moving space object that comes within around 4.65 million miles is considered to be "potentially hazardous" by cautious space organisations.

Asteroid 2010 AE30 is estimated to have a diameter of anywhere between 167 to 361 feet.

In comparison, London's Elizabeth Tower, which is famously known as Big Ben because of the bell inside, is only 320 feet tall.

The Statue of Liberty is smaller again at 310 feet.

Asteroid 2010 AE30 will be travelling at around 27537 miles per hour.

It's thought to be over five times bigger than the Chelyabinsk meteor, which exploded over Russia back in 2013.

Its impact smashed windows and injured more than 1,000 people.

There's no need to panic though as an approach of 2.8million miles is still very far away.

Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...

Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)

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