Baghdad: Discovered just 48 hours ago, a massive asteroid is approaching Earth at a tremendous speed. Scientists have reported that a newly identified house-sized asteroid will approach Earth today at a safe distance, equivalent to one-third of the distance between Earth and the Moon.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, this approach will occur at approximately 5:30 PM (5:30 PM GMT), when the asteroid, named 2025 KF, will pass at a distance of only 115,000 km (71,700 miles) from Earth. During its passage, the asteroid will travel at a speed of 41,650 km per hour (25,880 mph) relative to Earth. The celestial body will approach Earth’s southern polar region before continuing its trajectory around the Sun.

2025 KF is not considered a potentially hazardous object and poses no risk of colliding with the Moon, as it will maintain a distance of approximately 226,666 km (140,844 miles). According to the Minor Planet Center, astronomers discovered this rocky object on May 19 using the MAP project in the Chilean Atacama Desert, just two days before its close approach to our planet.

The asteroid is estimated to measure between 10 and 23 meters (32 and 75 feet) in diameter, roughly the size of a house. Even if it were to impact Earth, its small size suggests it would likely burn up in the atmosphere without posing any threat to the planet’s inhabitants, NASA scientists state.

Since NASA began its program monitoring potentially hazardous objects in 1998, nearly 40,000 near-Earth asteroids have been recorded. Out of these, about 4,700 are classified as potentially hazardous objects, although experts at the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies confirm that it is improbable any asteroid capable of causing significant damage will impact Earth within the next century.

The trajectory of 2025 KF does not come close to breaking the record for the closest asteroid pass by Earth, which was set in 2020 by a car-sized asteroid that passed just 2,950 km (1,830 miles) from Earth’s surface.