ROCK ON

Astronomer snaps ‘hazardous’ 1,700ft asteroid hurtling towards us – and it may hit Earth one day

A HUGE inbound asteroid has been caught on camera in an incredible image.

Astrophysicist and astronomer Dr Gianluca Masi spotted the giant space rock as he surveyed the sky in the early hours of the morning last Friday.

The asteroid is known as 2020 AN3.

Masi works for the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy but wasn't expecting to spot the space rock or capture such a photo.

Asteroid 2020 AN3 has been labelled by cautious space organisations as "potentially hazardous".

This means it could one day strike Earth.

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

As Asteroid 2020 AN3 skimmed past our planet it was approximately 1.9million miles away.

In the image, the asteroid appears to be a tiny dot but in real life it's estimated to be between 754.6 to 1,673 feet in diameter.

It was captured moving towards Earth in a single 180-second exposure image.

This lengthy exposure is why all the stars in the image appear as streaks across the sky.

Masi said: "The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid."

Nasa's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) tracked the asteroid.

It also features on the European Space Agency's Risk List.

Considering its hefty size, it's remarkable that the asteroid was only discovered this year.

The space rock is one of 88 new near Earth objects (NEO) that have been spotted in 2020 so far.

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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