The NASA-tracked asteroid will arrive within close proximity of our homeworld in the late morning hours of Wednesday, August 28. The asteroid, dubbed 2019 OU1, is a so-called Near-Earth Object (NEO) flying on a Close Approach Trajectory. NASA expects the space rock to come flying by dangerously close around 11.36am BST (10.36am UTC). The terrifying moment will mark the asteroid’s closest approach just one month after it was first discovered.

Asteroid 2019 OU1 is an Apollo-type space rock, zipping around the inner solar system on a trajectory similar to Asteroid 1862 Apollo.

NASA first observed the asteroid on July 25 this year and has since made a total of 70 observations to determine the rocks size, speed and trajectory.

NASA concluded 2019 OU1 measures somewhere in the range of 249ft to 557.7ft (76m to 170m) in diameter.

An asteroid this big is comparable in size to St Paul’s Cathedral in London or the Washington Monument in the US.

Even at the smaller end of the scale, the asteroid is almost as wide as the wingspan of a Boeing 747 aeroplane.

The asteroid is also hurtling through space at about 13.01km per second or 29,102mph.

A space rock this big would cause considerable damage if it hit a populated area.

When a 197ft (60m) struck northern soccer stream Arizona 50,000 years ago, the force of impact created a 4,000ft-wide (1,219m) and 600ft-deep (183m) crater.

A car-sized asteroid is estimated to hit the Earth roughly once a year.