Huge two-mile wide asteroid to skim Earth THIS WEEK

Although the 2.4 mile-wide meteorite will hurtle past 14 million miles away, scientists at NASA describe the encounter as a "close approach”.

The asteroid is part of nearly 7,000 which cross the planet’s orbit.

The rocks are known to send large numbers of meteorites crashing to the Earth’s surface.

A rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in October 2013, is believed to have originated from an Apollo asteroid.

And it is thought an Apollo meteorite crashed to earth in 1954, hitting Ann Hodges, of Alabama, USA.

A NASA spokesman said the asteroid is "on our close approach list” but passes Earth at "many times the distance to the moon”.The space agency is so concerned about an asteroid colliding with Earth that it has set up a special taskforce to protect us from the threat.

The Planetary Defence Coordination Office will keep an eye out on all near Earth objects floating around in space.

(dailystar.co.uk)