A average - sized asteroid is going to fly past Earth next calendar month , which as usual has sparked all sort of   alarming headline – but there ’s nothing to worry about .

The asteroid is call 2002 AJ129 and , as its name hint , it was discovered in 2002 . On February 4 , it ’s scheduled to fly past our planet at a aloofness of4.2 million kilometers(2.6 million mi ) which , you bang , is fine . That ’s about 11 times further than the Moon .

AJ129 isestimatedto be between 548 and 1,225 meters ( 1,798 to 4,019 feet ) across , which is the sizing of a fairly tall skyscraper . This would plausibly cause alot of damageif it dispatch us . fortuitously , it ’s not live to .

It contract 1.61 years for the asteroid to orb the Sun , during which fourth dimension it move from within the orbit of Mercury to about the orbit of Ceres in the asteroid belt . This means it crosses the orbits of Mercury , Venus , Earth , and Mars .

That ’s actually moderately nerveless , and as a result the asteroid makes regular unaired passes to all four terrestrial planet . Earth gets a few more closemouthed flybys up to 2032 , then Venus arrest one , and then subsequently in the century Mars and Mercury .

Its near approach to any of these bodies will be Earth , when it come about 680,000 kilometers ( 424,000 mile ) from our planet , about twice the length of the Moon . luckily , that ’s not going to happen until February 2172 , so you should n’t have too much to worry about .

AJ129 belong to a grouping of asteroids known as the Apollo asteroid . These cross Earth ’s electron orbit regularly , with more than 8,000 asteroids in this group – the largest of near - Earth objects . About 1,500 of these , let in AJ129 , are classified as being “ potentially wild ” .

NASAdefines an asteroidas potentially hazardous if its range take in it within about 7.5 million km ( 4.6 million mile ) of our satellite , and its expectant than 140 measure ( 500 feet ) in size . AJ129 fits both of those bills , as do many other asteroid .

There ’s a running game list keep of the asteroids that pose themost threatto us , with each given a rating from zero to 10 on theTorino scaleto ascertain how unsafe they are . No asteroid presently ranks above zero , so we ’re doing okay at the moment .

But there is always the chance an asteroidcould pose a dangerto us in the hereafter . When that happens , it ’d be good if we were prepared to spot it andpush it out the style . Maybe exercise by observing objects like AJ129 is n’t such a bad mind .