Four Asteroids are hurtling towards Earth this week just to make us all sweat ahead of the holidays.
The largest of the four is roughly twice the size of the London Eye measuring 853 feet in width, reports the Daily Mail, and is flying at a speed of eight miles per second.
Dr Detlef Koschny of the European Space Agency has warned the results could be catastrophic if one of the asteroids were to hit our planet. He said “If it were to hit it would do quite some damage.”
But before we all panic, stock up on tinned food, and don the customary foil hat, Koschny did confirm that at present there is absolutely no need to lose our collective shit.
He told MailOnline:
But none of these objects have any chance to impact the Earth, so we are safe.
Phew – in fact the nearest of the four, named 2006LH, will pass at around 1.5 million miles from the Earth so as long as you keep your arms and legs tucked into our atmosphere you should be just fine.
The asteroids are set for their flyby on Wednesday, and with the catchily named 2015YQ1 being the brightest of the bunch it could be visible from Earth.
Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) are not uncommon, but what is peculiar about this occurrence is that so many are doing so on one day.
Dr Koschny added:
This is very rare. I don’t remember that this has ever happened before.
The news follows a warning from NASA that the planet is overdue an extinction event, but Wednesday’s events shouldn’t fulfil that premonition, much to the disappointment of doomsdayers.
So we should all survive to see Christmas – it’s a holiday miracle!
