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The space monster, christened by NASA's 2014 MV67 asteroid, could hit the Earth on one of the following three dates. The closest date of the potential cataclysm falls on April 3, 2019, less than two months away. After that, the asteroid MV67 is likely to hit our home planet again on March 22 and 20 next. The threat of impact in April is weak, but the cataclysmic force of the asteroid is a force to be reckoned with.
NASA astronomers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California estimate that the asteroid MV67 is approximately 1772 feet (540 m) in diameter.
An asteroid of this size is about as tall as the Ostankino tower in Moscow, Russia, and higher than the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building in New York, United States.
To put this into perspective, the asteroid is about five and a half times larger than Big Ben's clock tower in Westminster, London.
According to this terrifying image, NASA estimates that the asteroid accelerates in space to nearly 30,000 mph, or 13.32 km per second.
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NASA's Asteroid Alert: A monster space rock is about to collide with the Earth (Image: GETTY)
At the point of atmospheric impact, NASA warned that this speed could reach about 38 877 km / h, or 17.38 km per second.
If the asteroid hit the Earth at top speed, the loss of life would be unimaginable.
According to NASA, the asteroid weighs 220 billion or 220 million tons.
This means that the asteroid MV67 is likely to hit our planet's origin with a power of 7,900 megatonnes (Mt) – the equivalent of 7,900 million tonnes of TNT.
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In comparison, the Little Boy Hiroshima nuclear bomb exploded with a power of 13 to 18 kilotons (KT), which represents about 13,000 to 18,000 tons of TNT.
NASA does not know any asteroid or comet currently colliding with Earth
Fortunately, there is no immediate indicator allowing the asteroid to deviate sufficiently from its current trajectory to hit the Earth anytime soon.
NASA said: "NASA does not know any asteroid or comet currently colliding with Earth. The probability of a major collision is therefore very low.
"In fact, as far as we can judge, no large object is likely to hit Earth at any time in the next few centuries."
READ MORE: How often do asteroids hit the Earth?
According to NASA, on Friday, February 15, the asteroid would have a chance on 2,100,000 to hit the Earth.
This translates into a cataclysm risk of 0.000000047 or a 99.999999953% chance that the asteroid is missing the Earth.
The probabilities that the asteroid then hits the Earth in 2022 and 2025 are even lower: one chance out of 3,200,000,000 on both dates.
NASA is monitoring the asteroid with the help of its Sentry monitoring systems.
Asteroid alert NASA: the risk of direct impact is very low at the moment (Image: GETTY)
NASA's Asteroid Warning: NASA's Sentry Systems Monitor the Space (Image: GETTY)
The space agency explained, "Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continuously analyzes the most recent asteroid catalog to search for future impact possibilities with the Earth during the course of time. Next 100 years.
"Whenever a potential impact is detected, it will be analyzed and the results published immediately here, except in unusual cases where we are seeking independent confirmation."
Any potential threat directly to the Earth is updated on the Sentry system and alerts NASA of any potential danger.
Once an unwanted asteroid is placed in the Sentry database, it is highly likely that other orbital observations and trajectory calculations will remove it from the list of potential threats.
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