City killer asteroid is one of 4 to graze Earths orbit today

These four rock stars are embarking on a world tour.NASA has announced that an airplane-sized “city killer” asteroid will skim past Earth today — one of four “hazardous” space rocks to graze our orbit in less than 12 hours.Dubbed 2002 NV16, the cosmic boulder is slated to pass within a minimum distance of 2.8 million miles of our planet at around 11:47 a.m.

EST on Thursday, LiveScience reported.It is the largest of the interstellar quartet, measuring 580 feet in diameter — slightly smaller than the Washington Monument.Following close behind will be the 150-foot-wide asteroid 2024 TR6, which will pass within 3.5 million miles of Earth just a few minutes later at 11:51 a.m.

EST — a celestial two-fer, one could say.The other two intergalactic gravel stones — 2015 HM1 and 2024 TP17 — already made their fly-bys at 12:36 a.m.and 4:20 a.m.

respectively with the former coming within 3.4 million miles and the latter reaching within 2.9 million.These distances might seem far off by Earth’s standards.However, all four space rocks are deemed potentially hazardous because they’re soaring within 30 million miles of our planet.And while most wouldn’t inflict widespread damage should they hit, 2002 NV16 is big enough to wipe a major metropolis off the map (hence the name “city killer) and cause ripple effects throughout the planet.Fortunately, we don’t have to brace for armageddon as none are on a collision course with Earth.“Scientists can calculate the orbits of Near Earth Objects to a high precision when they get bright enough to spot and so we know for certain that none of the objects passing Earth today could collide with the planet,” UK astronomer Finn Burridge told the Daily Mail.

Despite not posing an imminent threat, two of these asteroids — 2024 TP17 and 2024 TR6—were only discovered earlier this month, just weeks before their “world tour,” the Daily Galaxy reported.In fact, an alarming number of asteroids are spotted just bef...