Huge asteroid 'skims' past Earth

- An asteroid the size of the Rock of Gibraltar next week skims along the earth. Although there is no chance he touches the earth NASA calls it 'a very close approach of an asteroid this size.'

The asteroid 2014-JO25 has a diameter of about 650 meters and travels on April 19 at a distance of 1.8 million kilometers. That's less than five times the distance to the moon.

Smaller asteroids fly daily along our planet, but the last time it passed one of this magnitude was in 2004. That boulder, Toutatis called, had a diameter of five kilometers and approached the Earth at a distance of four times that of the moon.

The next time that an asteroid so close to it is again only in 2027. Then, passes the 800-meter 199-AN10 on the distance to the moon only once (380. 000 kilometers). That asteroid has a reflective surface and should therefore be clearly visible.\n  \n   \n    \n    \n   \n   \n   \n      \n   \n     An asteroid (archive picture).\n    \n   \n     Photo: ESA

The next time we are back in 2014-JO25 see here is only about 600 years, according to NASA.