Stadium-sized asteroid to zoom past Earth Tuesday

Space agencies in the United States and Europe have confirmed that an asteroid the size of a stadium was set to pass Earth on Tuesday.

The European Space Agency said asteroid 2024 ON's closest approach was to take place at 12:17 CEST or 6:17 p.m. in the Philippines, around one million kilometers away from Earth.

Asteroid #2024ON will safely pass Earth today at 12:17 CEST. It is between 210 and 500 m across and at its closest approach it will be almost exactly one million km from our planet. ?????? pic.twitter.com/YuJI7OWaLh

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) September 17, 2024

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration estimates that 2024 ON is 290 meters in diameter.

''2024 ON poses no danger to Earth, but this type of asteroid is very important for planetary defence. It is small enough to be discovered a few months before passing Earth, but large enough to cause significant damage if it had hit,'' Juan Luis Cano of the ESA Planetary Defence Office said.

Four more asteroids will skim past Earth on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to NASA.

• 2024 RY10 (closest approach on Tuesday: 1.78 million km, 16 m in diameter, described by NASA as ''house size'')
• 2024 RR16 (closest approach on Tuesday: 5.81 million km, 16 m in diameter, described by NASA as ''house size'')
• 2013 FW13 (closest approach on Wednesday: 3.25 million km, 155 m in diameter, described by NASA as ''building size'')
• 2024 RZ13 (closest approach on Wednesday: 6.36 million km, 16 m in diameter, described by NASA as ''house size'')

NASA monitors asteroids and comets that are on orbits that bring them within 120 million miles (195 million kilometers) of the Sun. They are known as near-Earth objects.

''The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don’t bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact, but a small fraction of them – called potentially hazardous asteroids – require more attention," the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

''These objects are defined as asteroids that are more than about 460 feet (140 meters) in size with orbits that bring them as close as within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.''

Earlier this month, a small asteroid hit the Earth's atmosphere, producing a fireball that was seen in the skies over Luzon.

The asteroid, 2024 RW1, was only detected hours before it struck Earth on September 5. — VBL, GMA Integrated News