With Christmas Eve just around the corner, many children may be hoping to catch Santa Claus flying over.
But NASA has now warned that reindeer won’t be the only thing rising above Earth in the coming days.
Tonight a huge ‘Christmas Eve asteroid’ the size of a ten-story building will pass by Earth at a speed of 22,000 kilometers per hour
According to NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard, the space rock 2024 NX1 will reach its closest point to Earth at 02:56 GMT in the early hours of Christmas Eve.
With an estimated size of 29 to 70 meters (95 to 230 ft) in diameter, scientists believe 2024 NX1 could contain the destructive potential of 12 million tons of TNT.
Although this will be a ‘near miss’ by astronomical standards, experts say there is no chance of Christmas being ruined by a collision with this massive space rock.
The space agency estimates that the asteroid should pass harmlessly over the planet at a distance of about 4.48 million miles (7.21 million km).
Jess Lee, an astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told MailOnline: ‘It will be very far away, about 18 times further away from Earth than the moon, and so with this predicted path it won’t come close enough to hit Earth . .’
NASA has warned that the huge ‘Christmas Eve asteroid’ will pass by Earth tonight at a speed of 22,000 kilometers per hour (stock image)
The Christmas Eve asteroid was not spotted until December 12 when NASA and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) planetary defense systems detected its approach.
After calculating its orbit, the agencies called it a “close approach,” meaning it is expected to pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth.
However, based on the asteroid’s size and distance from Earth, the ESA only considers this a ‘very frequent’ approach.
The ESA has also not included 2024 XN1 on the ‘Risk List’ of objects with a less than zero chance of colliding with the planet.
This means that despite being within reach on the scale of the solar system, there is absolutely no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth on Christmas Eve.
And while that’s good news for Earth, at this distance the asteroid won’t be visible even to an amateur astronomer using his own telescope.
But even for a relatively small asteroid, the consequences of a potential impact would be devastating.
NASA research shows that an asteroid with a diameter of 70 meters is capable of flattening an area of 2,000 square kilometers if it collides with the planet.
The asteroid 2024 The space agencies predict the asteroid will reach its closest point at 02:56 GMT in the early hours of Christmas Eve.
Ms Lee says: ‘If you want to compare it to a previous asteroid impact, the Tunguska event in Russia in 1908 involved an asteroid about the same size as this one.
‘It exploded above ground and destroyed 80 million trees. The energy equation estimates range from 3 to 30 megatons of TNT’
Fortunately, the Tunguska event occurred over an uninhabited area of Siberia, but dangerous asteroid impacts have also occurred in recent history.
In 2013, a meteor with a diameter of only 20 meters exploded 45 kilometers above the Chelyabinsk region of Russia.
The resulting explosion released the energy equivalent of approximately 440,000 tons of TNT, damaging thousands of buildings and injuring an estimated 1,600 people.
So while the asteroid is not at risk of colliding with Earth on Christmas Eve, it is a stark reminder of how close the planet comes to disaster on a fairly regular basis.
After making its festive appearance next week, 2024 XN1 won’t come close to Earth again until January 2032.
During this pass the rock gets even closer, reaching a minimum distance of 4.7 million km.
At its closest point, the asteroid will pass within 7.21 million kilometers of Earth on Christmas Eve. In astronomical terms this is a near miss, but there is no risk of collision
However, the Christmas Eve asteroid will make its closest pass in December 2106, when it will fly past Earth at a distance of just 3.4 million km.
2024 XN1 won’t be the only space rock to visit Earth during the Christmas season.
Today, a small space rock called 2013 YB actually has a small chance of crashing into Earth at 12:27 GMT.
However, with a diameter of less than 3 meters, it is very likely that this rock will burn up in the atmosphere, producing nothing more dangerous than a particularly bright fireball.
At this size, NASA estimates that the asteroid would break up in the atmosphere more than 43 km above the ground, making it unlikely that small fragments would reach the ground.
Even the chance of this happening is quite small, with ESA predicting only a one in 52,356 chance of an impact.
On Christmas Day itself, an even larger asteroid called 2021 BA2 will pass remarkably close to Earth.
Based on its brightness, ESA estimates that this space rock could be between 30 and 70 meters in diameter, making it a potential ‘city killer’.
Earth is constantly being passed by large space rocks, some of which (pictured) have the potential to collide with the planet. If an asteroid the size of 2024 XN1 were to hit Earth, it would explode with the energy of 12 million tons of TNT
At 21:19 GMT on Christmas Day, BA2 will reach its closest point to Earth in 2021, just 2.76 million km away.
But at more than seven times the distance to the moon, space agencies predict no risk of a collision between the asteroid and the planet.
The next really big asteroid to pass Earth won’t be until January 5, 2025, when a 400-meter (1,310 ft) asteroid will pass close by.
This space rock the size of the Eiffel Tower will zoom past Earth at a speed of 49,660 miles per hour (79,920 km/hour), reaching its closest point just 3.68 million km from Earth.