Massive asteroid five times the size of Big Ben speeding towards Earth's orbit this week

dailystar.co.uk:

asteroid that is thought to be five times the size of Big Ben is speeding up towards Earth's orbit this week and will make a close-earth approach.The rock named 2015 DR215 was first sighted on February 18, 2015, and has an estimated diameter of 220m to 490m, according to NASA's Earth Close Approaches list.The latest tracking from the space agency claims that the asteroid will come within close proximity to Earth's orbit on Friday, March 11, although it is not deemed hazardous or expected to crash directly into the planet.If it were to enter the Earth's atmosphere however, it would leave a city-sized dent on our planet, even in its smallest possible size.However, luckily for us, the closest the massive space rock will pass by Earth is 4.2million miles away – which is not a lot in space terms.For perspective, the sun is 92million miles away, some 22 times further than the monster asteroid will be.It is not clear if and where you will be able to catch a glimpse of it, as it is expected to zoom past at 6:41am, travelling at 8.3km/s.To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.This comes as last week saw a colossal asteroid that was a whopping 12 times the size of Big Ben whiz past Earth.Asteroid 138971 made its close-earth approach on Saturday, March 5, passing just under three million miles away from us, at a speed of 12.02km/s – nearly 27,000mph.If 138971 were to have entered the Earth's atmosphere, its size was so great that it could have caused an extinction level event – showing how it dwarfs 2015 DR215 in comparison..