Giant asteroid to hurtle past Earth

[link to au.news.yahoo.com]

An asteroid with a diameter of 400m will make its closest approach to Earth later this year.

Known as YU55, the asteroid would fly within the moon's orbit narrowly missing Earth, according to reports.

"The space rock will hurtle past our planet at a distance of just 201,700 miles (324,600km) during its closest approach on November 8," The Daily Mail has reported.

"That is closer to Earth than the moon, which orbits 238,857 miles (384,400km) away on average.

"With a width of some 400m and weighing 55 million tons, YU55 will be the largest object to ever approach Earth."

But US space agency NASA said there was no cause for concern.

"Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years," NASA said.

"However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not happen again until 2028."