Scheduled to fly by on July 24, asteroid 2020 ND - HACKOGRAPH - HACKOGRAPH

Asteroid approaches near Earth are no longer a rare occurrence to observe, thanks to NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) initiative. Operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology, CNEOS now maintains a publicly available data sheet of near-Earth asteroids, which includes both historic data, as well as asteroids that are expected to fly past Earth in relatively close quarters. As per the data, there are 48 asteroids of varying sizes, which are slated to approach Earth at a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of less than 0.05 AU (~7.48 million km). It is this orbit distance, coupled with visual magnitude (denoted as H) of 22 or above, that classifies an asteroid as a ‘potentially hazardous’ one, even if it does not necessarily mean that life on Earth will be threatened by it. Taking these data points into consideration, here are six asteroids that are almost 200 metres or larger in diameter, and are scheduled to fly past Earth in close proximity in 2020.

In what could be a thrilling experience for sky gazers across the world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has warned that a gigantic and ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid will pass by Earth on July 24.

According to NASA, the humongous asteroid is bigger than the famous London Eye which is 443 feet high and will make its closest approach to Earth on July 24, reported Birmingham Live.

"Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth," the NASA said on its website.

"Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs," it added.

The space boffins in the United States have named the space rock Asteroid 2020ND and has been branded "potentially hazardous". The monstrous rock measuring 170 metres will come within just 0.034 astronomical units (AU) of our planet on July 24.

One AU (149,598,000 km) is the distance between the Earth and the Sun and it is expected that coming Saturday, the gigantic asteroid which is travelling at a staggering 13.5 kilometres per second - or 48,000 kilometres per hour will be 5,086,327 kilometres away from our planet - a hair's width in astronomical terms.