Three asteroids to whip past Earth this weekend, says Nasa
Despite reports of urgent warnings, we are going to be safe from the runaway rocks
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Your support makes all the difference.Three huge asteroids are set to fly past Earth this weekend.
The trio of vast rocks will swoop past just hours apart from each other, with one coming nearer to us than the moon.
But reports that the asteroids will be "skimming" past Earth or suggestions that they could put us in any danger appear to be unfounded.
There really are three asteroids set to be flying by. And though they'll come fairly close, it shouldn't be close enough to worry anyone.
The first is known as 2018 VA2, and has already flown past on Friday morning. That's as big as 75 feet wide, and will pass by around 450,000 miles away.
It will be followed by another couple of objects that will whip by just 15 minutes apart on Saturday afternoon. At about 100 feet wide, each of them could cause significant damage if they came towards Earth, but thankfully even the closest will be a full 865,418 miles away.
The last will also be the closest and smallest of the weekend. It will pass by on Saturday evening at a relatively cosy 237,037 miles.
Various news organisations reported that Nasa had given out "warnings" about the rocks. But they are all expected to fly by entirely safely, at distances of hundreds of thousands of miles away.
Those are relatively close passes in terms of objects in the solar system, but still not close enough to do any damage. All the same, Nasa will be monitoring the rocks on they journey, as it does with all near-Earth objects that are spotted.
And Nasa and other experts have repeatedly warned that asteroids of this kind could pose some danger to Earth in the future. The US government has been working with the space agency on plans to deflect such potential disastrous asteroids, which at their worst could wipe out entire continents.
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