May 19th will bring a dramatic near-miss as a large asteroid, one third of a mile in diameter, flies by Earth at a mere distance of 279 000 miles. In astronomical terms, this is a very close call.

The asteroid, dubbed 1996 JA-1 represents the largest object known to pass this close to Earth. Only five other objects have been recorded to pass this closely.

Of course, this near-miss should not cause any panic. Scientists have carefully projected the asteroid's orbit and have determined that there is no chance it will hit Earth.

If 1996 JA-1 did hit the Earth, there would be massive devastation. The asteroid's impact would have the equivalent force of almost all the world's nuclear arms being detonated at the same time. Even so, it is believed that this asteroid is only one tenth the size of the asteroid which collided with the Earth 65 million years ago and subsequently caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The asteroid will be at its closest distance from Earth at around 12:48 p.m. EST on Sunday, May 19th. It will be travelling at a speed of 36 000 miles per hour. At this speed, large telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope will be unable to track the asteroid.

This announcement comes in the wake of the announcement that another asteroid will be passing a mere 1.9 million miles from Earth in about a week. This asteroid is around 0.75 miles in diameter.

In addition, scientists recently announced that the asteroid 433 Eros has a significant probability (50%) of colliding with the Earth in 100 million to 1 billion years from now. Eros is larger than the Nemesis asteroid which destroyed the dinosaurs. Eros is around 14 miles (22 km).

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