NASA warns asteroid bigger than Big Ben to crash into Earth’s orbit at 50,000mph today

A large asteroid, travelling at incredible speeds of 50,000mph is set to clash with Earth’s orbit today.

2021RL3 is a rock measuring 160-360 feet in diameter and coming close to the orbit of our planet.

At 3.30pm GMT (10.30 GMT), the object will be within 1,804,450 mile of Earth.

For comparison, the moon is only 238,855 miles from Earth. The asteroid is estimated to be 7 lunar distances away. (trips to and from the moon).

2021RL3 is expected to be very close to Earth and would have a significant impact if it did.

NASA is able to determine when the asteroid is going to fly by and how big it is by the light the object emits.

The flying debris will be in an elliptical orbit and travel between Mars, Jupiter, before moving closer to Earth.

2021RL3 will come closer to Earth then any other planet in the solar system.

After, it’s expected to whizz around the Sun before making its journey back.

Although they are much larger than the Earth, there are still over 100 tons worth of small space rocks or other debris that fall on it every day.

Anything smaller than an average vehicle is likely burn in the atmosphere. This isn’t considered to be a threat to Earth.

NASA believes every 2,000 years or so, a meteoroid the size of a football field is likely to make through the atmosphere and cause destruction.

A rock large enough for Earth to be dangerous is only detected once in a few million years.

NASA regularly monitors ‘close approaches’ in order to track comets and asteroids that are moving towards or near Earth’s orbit.

The space agency lists these encounters so astronomers can study the pieces of rock as they fly past.

NASA has just released a new study in which it examined the probability of Bennu crashing into Earth between now & 2300.

The rock, around one-third of a mile wide, is listed as a “potentially hazardous object” to humanity, was first discovered back in 1999.

Bennu is a C-type rock and one of the most dangerous asteroids in our solar system.

New data from OSIRIS REx’s spacecraft have predicted the asteroid’s path through the solar systems and raised the probability of its impact on September 24, 2182.

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