1.5 Miles Across 'Monster' Asteroid to Pass by Earth on Saturday (+Video)

MONSTER-sized asteroid is set to brush past our planet on Saturday.

NASA is monitoring the “close Earth” pass of the mountain-sized space rock – which measures 1.5-miles across – that will hurtle past the planet at 45,450mph, or 70 times the speed of a jumbo jet, on Saturday, July 25

The asteroid due to approach Earth at the weekend, named 1999 JD6. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

Although 1999 JD6 is expected to pass Earth safely at a distance of around four million miles, it is feared a rock of a similar size will one day be on a direct path with our planet, meaning action would have to be taken to prevent the devastation that would follow

On Friday, a much smaller asteroid, of only 16 metres, which could devastate a whole, is due to literally skim the Earth.

NASA is monitoring the path of this rock, which will shoot past at just 350,000 miles away – only just a one and a half times the distance from Earth to the Moon (239,000 miles).

These smaller asteroids are known to travel much nearer to Earth and could even strike out of the blue – like the 20-metre long meteor that unexpectedly exploded above Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013, injuring 1,500 people and damaging around 7,000 buildings.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/587608/Mountain-sized-asteroid-wipe-Earth-heading-our-way-month-Brian-May-Brian-Cox-meteorite