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The 2017 KP27 asteroid is expected to be approached on September 26, and NASA will monitor it closely. The space rock is 25 meters long, more than twice the size of a London double-decker bus. It will run at an incredible speed of 4.7 km / s, or nearly 17,000 km / h. The asteroid will fly at 0.01 astronomical unit (AU) – an AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun – about 1.5 million kilometers.
Although this may seem like a considerable distance, it is enough to point out NASA and classify it as "potentially dangerous".
The US Space Agency said: "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the potential of this asteroid to make threatening approaches to the Earth.
"Specifically, all asteroids whose minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is less than or equal to 0.05 AU are considered PHAs."
The asteroid 2017 KP27 will fly back to Earth next September and will not follow the path of the planet before 2016.
At 25 meters long, the asteroid will bring back memories of the Chelyabinsk meteor.
In 2013, a 20-meter meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, which broke windows and injured more than 1,000 people.
The experts did not anticipate the incident, raising fears that the Earth would be surprised by a more devastating asteroid attack in the future.
Although the chances of a major asteroid striking the Earth are low – NASA estimates that there is a 300,000 chance each year that a space rock that can cause regional damage – the devastating prospect it's not impossible.
READ MORE: NASA shock: Space agency on the move to save humanity
The mission will provide essential information on how to deflect asteroids from their collision course with the Earth.
But NASA reiterates that, even if there is a small chance for the Earth to be affected, "over millions of years, of all the planets, Bennu is most likely to touch Venus".
ESA has invested £ 21m in projects such as the Hera mission (Human Exploration Research Analog), which will study the binary asteroid Didymos, which is expected to fly over the Earth in 2022.
Studies such as Hera will help ESA better understand how it can protect our planet against asteroid kills.
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