NASA warns that a 700ft asteroid will collide with Earth in August, 2023

An asteroid called the 2018 LF16 which is a massive 700ft or double the size of Big Ben will potentially hit our planet on August 8, 2023. But hold on, before you start panicking. According to NASA there's just a one in a 30 million chance of this happening.

An asteroid called the 2018 LF16 which is a massive 700ft or double the size of Big Ben will potentially hit our planet on August 8, 2023. But hold on, before you start panicking. According to NASA there's just a one in a 30 million chance of this happening.

The asteroid has 62 different potential impact trajectories with our planet over the course of the next hundred years. Other potential dates when the space rock could collide with Earth is August 3, 2024, and August 1, 2025.

On the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, this asteroid ranks as a level "zero" threat, which means the chances of our planet coming in contact with the rock is almost non-existent.

But the US space agency will continue to keep an eye on this asteroid to be prepared in case there's something to worry about. If our planet is unfortunate enough that it crashes with the asteroid, it would cause a widespread destruction.

A rock that big could have an impact equivalent to the force of 50 Megatons which is also the power a Tsar Bomba nuclear device can generate. In 2013, a much smaller space rock struck over Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia injured around 1,000 people because of the broken glasses caused by the explosion.

"As they orbit the Sun, Near-Earth Objects can occasionally approach close to Earth," NASA explained.

Besides, NASA is also planning to live stream its very first asteroid sample return mission to 101955 Bennu. NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), on December 3, will come in contact with the Bennu.

The OSIRIS-REx first took a flight back in September 2016, and three years later it will finally tag the asteroid. It is equipped with five instruments and will monitor the asteroid for a period of one year, before choosing a site to retrieve a sample.