‘Planet killer’ sounds like the big scary monster in a kids’ cartoon or the key storyline of a sci-fi film.
And yet it’s being used to reference something very real that is coming very close to our planet.
An absolute whopper of an asteroid is set to come close to Earth in the coming days and you’ll even be able to see it.
Nicknamed the ‘planet killer’, it’s effectively the size of a mountain and is formally named 2011 UL21. Well, it’s actually bigger than any of the UK’s mountains – that’s how f**king massive it is.
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At a huge 2,310 metres wide, the 2011 asteroid is said to be bigger than 99 percent of all other known near-Earth objects (NEOs), according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
The mega space rack will get pretty close to our dear planet tomorrow (27 June), when it zips past Earth at roughly 58,000 mph.
Although it is absolutely huge, 2011 UL21 is still at least 10 times smaller than the largest asteroid to ever hit our planet - the Vredefort. And it’s about five times smaller than the one that, of course, wiped out the dinosaurs all those millions of years ago.
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Luckily for us though, the ‘planet killer’ will zoom past at about 4.1 million miles away from Earth – that’s 17 times as far away as the Moon is.
This is still the closest that 2011 UL21 has been to our planet for a minimum of 110 years, according to simulations from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
And even at this distance, NASA considers the asteroid as a potentially hazardous object.
Don’t start panicking or thinking you’re living in a sci-fi flick though, because the ‘planet killer’ really doesn’t pose any threat to Earth.
So, if you’re not freaked out and you’re into that kind of space stuff, you can even try and spot it in the sky.
2011 UL21 is said to be at its brightest on 28 and 29 June and is likely to be visible from the Northern Hemisphere. You’ll probably need a decent telescope though as you look up into the night sky to spot the space rock.
It’s said that while it’s at its brightest, it’ll be similar to Proxima Centauri – the nearest known star to the sun.
According to JPL simulations, this asteroid won’t be getting this close to our planet again after this until all the way until 2089 when it’ll be within 1.7 million miles of us.
Jess Battison