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Daily Record
Daily Record
Science
Lucy Aplin & Hannah MacKenzie Wood

Giant asteroid bigger than Statue of Liberty set to enter Earth's orbit

A huge asteroid larger than the Statue of Liberty is on course to enter Earth's orbit in the next few days.

Labelled 2021 NY1, the rock is currently being tracked by NASA alongside 17 other incoming objects expected to get close to our world this September.

2021 NY has a sizeable diameter of 130-300m - dwarfing New York's Statue of Liberty which stands at 93m tall.

Thankfully, it will stay a safe distance from our planet, passing us from 930,487 miles away.

To put this distance into context, the moon orbits Earth from 238,855 miles away, so there's no need to call in Bruce Willis to save us from a real-life Armageddon just yet .

Another of the asteroids being monitored by NASA, named 2021 QC1, has a smaller (but still impressive!) diameter of 71-160m.

This giant asteroid is set to orbit earth at a reassuringly-far three million miles.

Earlier this month, NASA released the findings from a study that said the asteroid Bennu could smash into Earth between now and the year 2300.

This asteroid has been on NASA's radar since 1999 and has been deemed 'potentially hazardous' to human life.

The giant asteroid is on course to enter Earth's orbit in a matter of days. (Getty Images)

Although Bennu is one of the two most dangerous asteroids in the solar system, scientists believe that there's only a 1 in 2,700 chance of it colliding with earth.

Researchers were able to rule out some impact scenarios but raised the overall probability for impact on September 24, 2182 - if it were to ever occur.

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