NASA issues update over huge asteroid the size of a plane to skim past Earth tomorrow

NASA has issued a warning that an asteroid the size of a plane will pass close to Earth tomorrow. The space rock, which measures 124ft (38m), will make a close pass of our planet at speeds over 28,000 miles per hour (45,000 km/h).

When it reaches its closest point to Earth, the asteroid will be 135,465 miles (218,009 kilometres) away. This is half the distance between Earth and the Moon. The asteroid 2025 QD8 is expected to pass our planet at 3.56pm BST on Wednesday (September 3).

Experts from NASA and the European Space Agency have said the asteroid isn't going to collide with Earth. Instead it will fly past.

An image of 2025 QD8 taken by amateur astronomers from the Virtual Telescope Project confirmed the asteroid is 55-125ft (17-38m) wide.

However, the size isn't certain as it is an estimate which was calculated using the amount of light reflected from its surface.

But sadly the asteroid won't be visible to the naked eye, with star-gazers needing powerful telescopes to see it.

Dr Shyam Balaji, an astrophysicist from King's College London, told the Daily Mail: "It will be far too faint and even telescopes would need to be well-equipped and precisely aimed."

The Virtual Telescope Project will be hosting a free live stream of its passage, starting from midnight on Tuesday.

The YouTube live stream will include views of the asteroid from the group's robotic telescopes in Manciano, Italy.

Space agencies including NASA have discovered tens of thousands of asteroids with trajectories which bring them near Earth's orbit.

These include thousands of potentially hazardous objects which could one day smash into our planet.

But the US Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has said it is highly unlikely an asteroid capable of causing widespread damage will hit our planet in the next 100 years.