NASA detects gigantic comet approaching Earth and it’s so huge you’ll be able to see it from Britain

TWO massive space rocks are approaching Earth, NASA has warned.

The space agency's comet-hunting NEOWISE mission spotted a comet incoming this week and another that is set to enter Earth’s orbit in February.

The latter “object”, dubbed the 2016 WF9, was detected by NASA in late November and has left scientist's scratching their heads.

They have described the celestial rock as a cross between an asteroid and a comet.

It's in the middle of its of.9 year orbit between Jupiter and Earth and will approach us on February 25, flying by at a distance of 32million miles from the planet.

There's no  current fear it will make contact, but  this chilling video  shows exactly  what would happen if it did.

NASA hopes the spectacle will give them a chance to work out exactly what it is.

Typically, comets are made of frozen gas, rock and dust and release gas as they fly close to the  sun – letting off gases that give them a "tail".

The WF9 resembles a comet in its reflectivity and orbit, but appears to lack the characteristic dust and gas cloud that defines a comet.

Reaching around 1km in diameter it is charcoal-coloured and reflects just a small amount of light.

The second object, discovered by NEOWISE a month earlier, is more clearly a comet, releasing dust as it nears the sun.

It will be in the southeastern sky in the early hours this week.

It will move further south each day and will reach its closest point to the sun, inside the orbit of Mercury, on Jan. 14, before heading back out to the outer reaches of the solar system for an orbit lasting thousands of years.

Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said: "The C/2016 U1 NEOWISE has a good chance of becoming visible through a good pair of binoculars, although we can't be sure because a comet's brightness is notoriously unpredictable."

The discovery could mean a change in how we identify rocks in space, NASA added.

"2016 WF9 could have cometary origins," said Deputy Principal Investigator James "Gerbs" Bauer at JPL.

"This object illustrates that the boundary between asteroids and comets is a blurry one; perhaps over time this object has lost the majority of the volatiles that linger on or just under its surface."

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