Giant asteroid heading close to Earth (Martin Evans)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

Asteroid YU55 will pass close to earth later this year Photo: ALAMY

May 5, 2011 (Telegraph) -- A giant asteroid weighing 55 million tonnes will just miss the Earth later this year, Nasa experts have predicted.

The rock, which is quarter of a mile across, will pass between our planet and the moon in November and will be visible with small telescopes.

Robin Scagell of the Society for Popular Astronomy said: “It’s rare we get the chance to see an asteroid up close.”

If it were to hit the earth, the asteroid, named YU55, would have an impact equivalent to 65,000 atom bombs and would leave a crater more than six miles wide and 2,000ft deep.