
Says Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: ‘The generally agreed upon theory is that on the morning of June 30, 1908, a large space rock, about 120 feet across, entered the atmosphere of Siberia and then detonated in the sky.’
Although the asteroid is small, if it were on a collision course with Earth, it would produce the equivalent of 2.5 megatons of TNT.
And this is just one of some 500,000 rocks circling the Earth.
The good news is that scientists say that that isn’t enough to wipe out life on the planet – but it could wipe out a city the size of Greater London.
However, a miss is as good as a mile, and unless you’re specifically looking for it, you almost certainly won’t see the asteroid.
NASA says that it won’t be bright enough to see with the naked eye, but that a good pair of binoculars or a telescope should be able to pick it out.
On the 15th, said NASA, the asteroid will travel rapidly from the southern evening sky into the northern morning sky, with its closest Earth approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility.
About four minutes after its Earth close approach, there is a good chance it will pass into the Earth’s shadow for about 18 minutes or so before reappearing from the eclipse.
When travelling rapidly into the northern morning sky, 2012 DA14 will quickly fade in brightness.
The best view for astronomers will be from Indonesia, says NASA, while stargazers in Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia should also be able to get a good look at the space rock as it whizzes past us at a speed of 17,400mph.
The asteroid was discovered only last year, by astronomers in southern Spain.
The team was operating from the La Sagra Sky Survey observatory near Granada in Spain. The observatory uses automated telescopes to track small asteroids and comets.
2012 DA14 was discovered after the astronomers decided to search areas of the sky where asteroids are not usually seen.
Its orbital period around the sun is very close to our own, at 368 days, and it has made a close approach every year.
This year’s is the closest, say scientists - and the good news is that this is the closest it will get to Earth for at least three decades.
Dr Gerhard Drolshagen, a near-Earth object observer from the European Space Agency’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) office, said: ‘In future times the possibility of a collision cannot be completely excluded. It is highly unlikely, but the chance is greater than zero.’
The asteroid’s next very close shave with Earth will be in 2046, when it will squeak by us at a distance of 37,000 miles.
And there’s another close encounter in 97 years’ time, on February 16 2110, when the chance that it will hit the Earth is 1 in 7,692,308,000.
Read more: asteroid set to miss earth