Asteroid Apophis

An asteroid the size of a small house will zoom past Earth on Monday evening, but don’t worry it is no threat to our planet astronomer say.

This asteroid is called 2011 MD and is 8 meters across, is going to be as close as 12,000km from Earth. This would make it over southern Atlantic Ocean around 6:14pm BST.

Asteroid 2011 MD could be reflective enough to be seen by amateur astronomers that have good telescopes. Astonomers said that 2011 MD is a piece of a larger asteroid and was only spotted by astronomers last week in New Mexico.

Kevin Yates, manager of the Near Earth Object Information Centre in Leicester, said: “This a tiny asteroid by any standards. It’s at the limit of what can be detected.”

The asteroid will be between the moon and Earth and is labeled an “intruder” in astronomy terms.

“As the asteroid passes by, its orbit will be changed and no one knows what that means for future passes and whether it will eventually collide with the Earth.

NASA officials have ranked asteroid 2011 MD as being no threat to the Earth and ranks a zero on the Torino scale.