Washington: An asteroid half the size of a US football field will dart between Earth and orbiting satellites next week, sparing the human race and putting on a show for sky gazers in Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia, NASA said.

The 150-foot diameter asteroid, named 2012 DA14, will pass 27,358 kilometres above Earth on February 15 -- lower than the orbits of some satellites -- in the closest known approach of an object of its size. It will travel on a north-to-south trajectory at 7.8 kilometres a second, or about eight times the speed of a rifle shot, NASA scientists said today.

"No Earth impact is possible," Donald Yeomans, who manages the Near-Earth-Object office at Pasadena, California- based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Thursday.

The NASA unit monitors relatively small space objects such as DA14 to measure the risks they present to the Earth. Researchers said the asteroid's close trajectory will help NASA in preparing for an eventual encounter with a near-Earth object later this decade.