This week, NASA warned that a city-destroying asteroid the size of the Leaning Tower of Pisa could slam into Earth in just over 20 years.
It comes just two months after another space rock — the size of a London bus — made the fourth closest approach to our planet ever.
The good news is that the US space agency, along with scientists from around the world, is monitoring potential asteroids – and the even better news is that you can do this too interactive tool.
It shows the next five closest approaches to Earth, starting with 2020 FV4 in three days.
The 100-foot-wide object is expected to race past our planet at a distance of about 4.1 million miles (6.7 million km).
Our space rock neighbors: NASA has an interactive tool known as the Eyes on Asteroids (pictured) that allows trackers to track asteroids that are close to Earth
That’s nothing to worry about. After all, the moon is 240,000 miles away, so this particular asteroid doesn’t pose any danger.
What could, however, be the 165ft (50m) wide 2023 DW, which NASA has revealed has a one in 560 chance of hitting Earth on Valentine’s Day in 2046.
If so, the impact would be similar to the 12-megaton Tunguska event that slammed into Siberia 114 years ago.
This 160 foot asteroid caused a nuclear explosion that would have destroyed a large metropolitan area – but it landed in a forest and destroyed more than 80 million trees.
The 2023 DW predicted impact zones stretch from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and the west to east coast of the US – with Los Angeles, Hawaii and Washington DC all possibilities.
As scary as this may be, that’s a generation away.
Looking at the here and now, stargazers who want to keep an eye on space rocks as they fly past Earth in the coming weeks and months can regularly consult NASA’s “Eyes on Asteroids” map.
Twenty-four hours after the approach of 2020 FV4 on March 13, another asteroid known as 2023 CM will hurtle past us.
This is much larger than both the 2020 FV4 and 2023 DW.
It is no less than 190 meters wide and will come much closer to our planet than its fellow visitor the day before.
2023 CM will be just under 4 million kilometers away – 10 times the distance from the Moon to the Earth.
The closest of the next five space rocks to come close to Earth is next Wednesday 2023 DM.
Named 2023 DM, this 212 ft (65 m) wide asteroid will be about 1.9 million miles (3.2 million km).
It’s followed two days later by 2018 UQ1 — a 470 ft (142 m) wide space rock that will be 2.5 million miles (4.1 million km) away — and 2016 WH a week on Sunday.
Users of the Eyes on Asteroids tool can not only look at the next space rocks that will fly past our planet, but also see a wider view of our solar system (pictured) and where some of the better-known asteroids currently reside
These include Bennu (pictured), which NASA says has a 1 in 1,750 chance of colliding with Earth in the next 300 years
A city-destroying asteroid the size of the Leaning Tower of Pisa could hit Earth on Valentine’s Day in 2046. The asteroid, known as 2023 DW, is big enough to destroy a metropolitan area — and Los Angeles and Washington DC have the potential impact zone
This will be by far the smallest asteroid, measuring 46 feet (14 m) wide, and will come within 4.2 million miles (6.9 million km) of Earth at closest approach.
Users of the Eyes on Asteroids tool can look not only at the next space rocks that will fly past our planet, but also a broader view of our solar system and where some of the better-known asteroids currently reside.
These include Bennu, which NASA says has a 1 in 1,750 chance of colliding with Earth in the next 300 years.
This was also the space rock on which the US space agency made a historic landing in 2020, when its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected rock samples and then launched back into space.
Bennu was chosen for the mission because scientists believe it may hold the building blocks of life in its “mess” surface. They also think his body was once part of a much larger, water-covered world.
Among the others seen on the map is Ryugu, from which the Hayabusa2 probe in Tokyo collected samples in 2018 and 2019
Also on the map is 16 Psyche, the asteroid once thought to be full of iron, nickel and gold and worth $10,000 quadrillion (£8,072 quadrillion).
Didymos, the double-asteroid moonlet system that NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into last year, is also visible
Among the others seen on the map is Ryugu, from which the Hayabusa2 probe collected samples in Tokyo in 2018 and 2019.
Last year, Japanese scientists said they showed the asteroid contained the building blocks of life.
Experts previously said the samples were the “most primitive material in the solar system we’ve ever studied.”
Didymos, the twin moonlet asteroid system that NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into last year, is also visible.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a refrigerator-sized satellite, managed to skim off the orbit of the 160-meter-wide asteroid Dimorphos for 33 minutes as it blasted into it at 22,000 km/h. ) in September 2022.
It was the first-ever planetary defense mission and proved to be a success.
The tool also reveals the locations of some of the probes and spacecraft launched into space by humans. These include the Lucy mission (pictured), which will swing past eight different asteroids during its 12-year journey through the solar system
Also on the map is 16 Psyche, the asteroid once thought to be full of iron, nickel and gold and worth $10,000 quadrillion (£8,072 quadrillion).
However, a new analysis has since suggested so maybe even less heavy metal and more hard rock.
However, the interactive tool doesn’t just have asteroids and planets. It also reveals the locations of some of the probes and spacecraft launched into space by humans.
These include the Lucy mission, which will swing past eight different asteroids during its 12-year journey through the solar system, and OSIRIS-REx.
There are also comets, including Wild 2, discovered in 1978, and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The latter was spotted in 1969 and was the first to land on a robotic mission from Earth. In August 2014, the Rosetta spacecraft encountered the come while carrying the Philae lander.
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