Huge asteroid the size of three football pitches to skim past Earth on Tuesday morning

The 2000 EM26 space rock, described as 'potentially hazardous', will shoot past our planet at a speed of 27,000mph

Close call: The 2000 EM26 will be closest to Earth around 2am

A huge asteroid the size of three football fields will narrowly miss Earth in the early hours of tomorrow morning, as it skims past our planet at a speed of 27,000mph.

The asteroid, poetically named 2000 EM26, is classed as a "potentially hazardous" Neart Eath Object as it is big enough to cause significant damage if it were to hit.

But experts said it poses no real threat, and will pass by the Earth at just under nine times the distance to the moon.

Scientists estimate the asteroid, measuring 885ft across, will be closest to Earth at 2am UK time.

At that point, the space rock will be 2.1 million miles from Earth, or 8.8 lunar distances.


The broadcast can be seen directly through the Slooh website or on

Asteroid 2000 EM26 - Near Earth Encounter
Asteroid 2000 EM26: The space rock will be 2.1 million miles away

Slooh's technical and research director Paul Cox said: "We continue to discover these potentially hazardous asteroids - sometimes only days before they make their close approaches to Earth.






Slooh host and astronomer Dr Bob Berman added: "On a practical level, a previously unknown, undiscovered asteroid seems to hit our planet and cause damage or injury once a century or so, as we witnessed on June 20, 1908, and February 15, 2013.

