Ball of Fire - Massive Asteroid ‘Hurtling Towards Our Solar System’ Would Have the Power to Wipe Out Human Existence… but There Are a Couple of Catches

A MASSIVE star is on a collision course with Earth and could wipe out all life on our planet.

The killer star – officially called HIP 85605 – is one of 14 heading towards us and has a 90 per cent chance of reaching the edge of our solar system, experts say.

The star is predicted to reach the outer rim of out solar system, where it will fling deadly asteroids straight at Earth

Once it reaches the outer rim, it will come into contact with the Oort cloud – a shell of icy objects encasing the entire system – where it could launch a flurry of cataclysmic asteroids at Earth.

According to astrophysicist Alan Duffy, of Swinburn University: “Objects hardly ever meet in space – the distances are so huge – but the gravitational influence of a star is enormous, even something a light year away can rattle the loosely held Oort Cloud objects.

“But there’s no doubt that nearby stars in the past have nudged Oort objects into falling towards the inner solar system.”

The deadly star is approximately three light years away, but is due to arrive in 240,000 years, says the study published in the journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

“The closest encounter appears to be HIP 85605, a K or M star, which has a 90% probability of coming between 0.04 and 0.20 parsed between 240,000 and 470,000 years from now,” according to the study.

The threat of more catastrophic asteroids hitting planet Earth became an increased worry for scientists after NASA filmed the moment a meteorite impact caused a huge explosion on the surface of the moon.

It collided with the lunar surface on September 11 2013 at a speed of 37,900 mph and weighed 880-pounds.