Asteroid is set to hit Earth's atmosphere this week

An Asteroid is set to hit Earth's atmosphere this week - but there's no need to flee to an underground bunker just yet.

Asteroids have long been a point of fascination and destruction for our planet, with the dinosaurs meeting their end 66 million years ago at the hands of the 10 km wide Chicxulub impactor.

If one that size were to ever hit our planet again, it would be a case of holding our loved ones tight and hoping our species gets resurrected in a more underwhelming version of Jurassic Park... Though Human Park doesn't have the same ring to it.

Per The Mirror, an asteroid is set to come pretty close to us this week, but there's no need to panic just yet as it's fairly small and won't make contact with Earth.

Asteroid 2023 BU was discovered by Gennadiy Borisov on January 21, with it scheduled to be at its closest to earth on Thursday (January 26).

It'll pass by 3500km from Earth, which put in perspective is less than three percent of the average distance between our home planet and the moon.

But say the asteroid suddenly changed course and began heading straight toward us, there would still be no need to panic due to how small it is.

The asteroid will come within 3500km of Earth. Credit: Jupe / Alamy

According to the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), the floating rock ranges between 12.4ft and 27.8ft, meaning it would break up while entering our atmosphere, as usually happens to any asteroids under 80 feet wide.

Anybody interested in watching the space event take place can do so over at the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP), which is a website that allows anyone to be an astronomer from the comfort of their own home.

The VTP is a group of robotic telescopes in Ceccano, Italy, and the live feed to watch Asteroid 2023 BU will go live on January 26 at 07:15 PM UTC (2:15 PM ET, 1:15 PM CT, 11:15 AM PT).

The asteroid isn't a threat to our planet. Alexandre Patchine / Alamy

Similarly, a comet named C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will be making its first appearance in over 50,000 years in late January and early February and it won't be visible again for another 50,000, so best see it while you can!

Let's be thankful there's no doomsday event facing our planet just yet.

Featured image credit: Philipp Nedomlel / Alamy