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That’s assuming, of course, we haven’t already been wiped out by another asteroid social media promises to hit our planet. In 2060 the asteroid will pass much closer, only 745,000 miles from Earth.

Its orbit brings it into our cosmic region roughly every 10 years. It has an icy nucleus bigger than we’ve ever seen before at around 80 miles across, and it’s 50 times bigger than the centre of most known comets.

While Nereus will fly harmlessly by next Saturday, it’s only goodbye for now. How big is the comet heading towards Earth The comet is known as C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) and it is heading in our direction at 22,000 miles per hour from the edge of the solar system. So while asteroids like this are a tantalizing target for attention-grabbing headlines, it helps having some astronomical texture to the situation. In fact, there are over 2,000 “potentially hazardous” asteroids we’re aware of as of today, many of which will pass much closer than this one. While 2,440,000 miles is a relatively short distance when talking vast space terms, it’s more than plenty of a buffer to negate any realistic threat that this asteroid is going to slam into your backyard. NASA warns massive asteroid is headed towards Earth - but dont panic.

Nasa prepares to smash spacecraft into an asteroid in earth-saving.

4660 Nereus (the name of this particular asteroid) is expected to pass around 2.44 million miles from Earth at closest approach, around 10 times the distance between the Earth and Moon. It is said to be a hundred thousand times greater than the mass of a typical 'comet found much closer to the Sun'. That designation is used for any asteroid that is expected to make a close approach of at least 4.65 million miles to Earth. The US-based space agency revealed that the comet is heading towards Earth at 22,000 miles per hour NASAs Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by astronomers, with a mass of 500 trillion tonnes. At just over 1,000 feet it’s about the size of the Eiffel tower and is indeed classified as potentially hazardous by NASA. Here’s the deal: There is indeed a relatively large asteroid set to work into our general vicinity with closest approach on December 11. Let’s put it this way, I still plan on coming to work next week. While all of the above statements are factually accurate (minus the the whole the end is near deal), headlines like these shared around social media and the internet in general don’t quite paint an accurate portrait of the situation.

Needless to say, with a headline like that, it seems the end is near. An asteroid roughly the size of a football field is spiraling toward Earth, deemed “potentially hazardous” as it works into Earth’s orbit.