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An asteroid the size of Big Ben’s tower will hurtle past the earth this afternoon.

The lunar entity 2013 MD8, described as a near earth object, will make the pass at around 5.55pm (GMT) on Tuesday afternoon.

Around 38 to 86 metres long, it would measure somewhere near the size of the iconic tower in Westminster.

It will travel at 30,418mph as it careers past our planet.

Upon doing so, it will be 3,602,959 miles away, or 15.1 lunar distances – a measure utilising the distance between the earth and the moon.

Despite this being relatively close in space terms, the situation is not deemed to be in any way a risk to life on earth.

A statement from NASA, detailing the possibility of an interstellar object colliding with our planet, said: “NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small.

"In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years.”