Two potentially hazardous asteroids have been ruled out as a threat to Earth — but a bigger one is on the way

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has ruled out two potentially hazardous asteroids as a threat to Earth.
• Asteroids 2010 CO1 and 2000 QW7, though large in size, are not a collision course for Earth.
• But in little over a month, asteroid 1998 HL1 -- bigger than Burj Khalifa -- will be flying by.

Two asteroids are coming awfully close the planet on 14 September 2019 but the Planetary Defence Coordination Office has ruled them out as a threat.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been tracking asteroid 504800 (2010 CO1) and 467317 (2000 QW7). Its calculations show that there is no chance of these space rocks posing a threat to Earth.

These aren’t small asteroids either. The first space rock, asteroid 2010 CO1, between 120 meters to 260 meters in diameter. That’s bigger than the tallest statue on Earth — the Statue of Liberty in India.

The second one, asteroid 2000 QW7, is even bigger with a diameter of 290 meters to 650 meters. Even China’s Shanghai Tower falls short at 632 meters, even though it’s the tallest building in the country and the third tallest in the world.

But, in just a little over a month, there’s an even bigger asteroid heading Earth’s way. On 25 October 2019, an asteroid named 162082 (1998 HL1), with its massive diameter of 440 meters to 990 meters, is scheduled to fly past the planet. The asteroid would be taller than the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, at its widest.

Who’s got the speed?

Asteroid 2010 CO1 is going to travelling at a speed of 51,696 kilometers per hour. But, asteroid 2000 QW7, will be slugging along at 23,112 kilometers per hour — less than half the speed of its counterpart.

“Both of these asteroids are passing at about 14 lunar distances from the Earth, or about 3.5 million miles away, but small asteroids pass by Earth this close all the time,” said Lindley Johnson, a planetary defence officer for the Planetary Defence Coordination Office.

October’s asteroid falls somewhere in between with a speed of 40,320 kilometers per hour but it will be twice as far away at a distance of 6.2 million kilometers.

Earth is safe — for now

NASA’s Asteroid Watch keeps an eye on all of these asteroids and has over 20,000 asteroids in its database. But only around 800 of these space rocks are actually considered to be ‘potentially hazardous’.

If NASA does detect a change in their orbit at any time — and if that change poses a threat to Earth — it will flag it on the Torino scale. Depending on the threat level, the Torino scale measures the probability of an asteroid hitting Earth on a scale of 1 to 10.