A "potentially hazardous" asteroid the size of a pyramid will skim past Earth today, Nasa has revealed.
The space rock, known as 2014 TN17, will make its closest approach on Wednesday.
Measuring approximately 540 feet in diameter, the asteroid is larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
As it passes our planet, the massive object will be travelling at a speed of just over 48,000 miles per hour— roughly 60 times the speed of sound.
The space rock, known as 2014 TN17, will make its closest approach on Wednesday (artist's impression of an approaching space rock)
Getty
The asteroid is expected to come as close as three million miles to Earth, marking its closest approach to our planet in more than 100 years.
Despite its classification as "potentially hazardous", Nasa confirms the mighty space rock poses zero risk of hitting us.
At 3.1 million miles away, it will be approximately 13 times further away than the moon — too distant to observe with binoculars or a telescope.
The close approach is being monitored as part of Nasa's ongoing tracking of objects that pass near Earth.
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Measuring approximately 540 feet in diameter, the asteroid is larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza
WikiCommonsAn asteroid is defined as "potentially hazardous" if it comes within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65 million miles) of Earth and is larger than 459 feet in diameter.
Asteroid 2014 TN17 meets both these specifications set by Nasa, which constantly tracks space objects using powerful ground-based and space telescopes.
Hypothetically, if 2014 TN17 were to impact our planet, it would be large enough to wipe out a city, but not large enough to eliminate all life on Earth.
However, there is absolutely no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth today.
Discovered 11 years ago, asteroid 2014 TN17 has a highly 'elliptical' orbit that takes it around the sun once every 1,240 days (3.39 years).
2014 TN17's elliptical orbit in relation to planets in the solar system
SpaceReference.org
Unlike a perfectly circular path, the asteroid's elliptical trajectory brings it periodically closer to Earth.
Just like planets, comets and other objects in the solar system, asteroids orbit the sun due to our star's immense gravitational pull.
Nasa has classified 2014 TN17 as a "potentially hazardous asteroid" due to its predicted close pass with Earth.
Due to its relative proximity to Earth, the asteroid is classed as a near-Earth object (NEO) - a term which can refer to either comets or asteroids.
According to Nasa, there are an estimated 11,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than 460 feet in diameter and 870 larger than 3,280 feet in diameter.
On average, Earth is hit by a football pitch-sized rock every 5,000 years, and a civilisation-ending asteroid every one million years, according to Nasa's Near-Earth Object Program.
