NASA tracking huge asteroid hurtling at nearly 40,000mph towards Earth's orbit

dailystar.co.uk:

NASA’s Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies are tracking a large asteroid which will approach Earth tonight. The space rock measures between 26 and 59 metres in diameter, larger than the Tower of Pisa.

It is expected to fly past Earth at around 17.42km a second, NASA estimates, at around 10.57pm on Monday 20th April at nearly 40,000 miles per hour.

The object will likely intersect our planet’s orbit at a natural trajectory of 0.02076 astronomical units from Earth. One astronomical unit equals the distance between the Sun and our planet, which is roughly 150 million kilometres.

The asteroid, dubbed 2020 GA3, was first discovered on 15th April and is classified as an Apollo asteroid – ones that intersect Earth’s path.