Mountain-Sized Asteroid Is Heading Towards Earth, Says Scientist

A mountain-sized asteroid which crosses paths with the Earth every three years has been discovered by a Russian scientist.

Vladimir Lipunov, a professor at Moscow State University, said the space rock, named ’2014 UR116′, poses no immediate threat.

But he warned that it could hit the Earth with an explosion 1,000 times greater than the surprise 2013 impact of a bus-sized meteor in Russia. That object entered Earth’s atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk, resulting in a series of ferocious blasts that blew out windows and damaged buildings for miles around.

Prof Lipunov said it is difficult to calculate the orbit of big rocks like ’2014 UR116′ because their trajectories are constantly being changed by the gravitational pull of other planets

And he warns that its existence proves how little scientists know about other asteroids which could cause harm to the planet.

“We need to permanently track this asteroid, because even a small mistake in calculations could have serious consequences,” he said.

Of 100,000 near-Earth objects which can cross our planet’s orbit and are large enough to be dangerous, only about 11,000 have so far been tracked and cataloged.

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