(Picture: Getty Images)

An asteroid could give our planet a VERY close shave on March 7 – as astronomers predict it could pass us as close as 11,000 miles away.

‘It’s gonna be close. But it’s going to miss us. There is nothing to worry about,’ said Gerald McKeegan of the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.

To put that in context, the moon is a quarter of a million miles away.

Astronomers say there’s no danger it will actually hit us – but if it does fly by at 11,000 miles, it will fly underneath some communications satellites.


Asteroid 2013 TX68 is estimated to be about 100 feet in diameter, NASA says.



By comparison, the asteroid that broke up in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, three years ago was approximately 65 feet (20 meters) wide.

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If an asteroid the size of 2013 TX68 were to enter Earth’s atmosphere, it would likely produce an air burst with about twice the energy of the Chelyabinsk event.

Scientists at NASA’s Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have determined there is no possibility that this object could impact Earth during the flyby next month.