Scary Asteroids That Will Hit Earth In Our Lifetime

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]2007 VK184 caused a bit of a stir when it first showed [music] up. This one's about 130 m wide, so roughly the size of a football field and then some. At one point, NASA gave it a 1 in 1,800 chance of hitting Earth on June 3rd [music] of 2048. That's not something you ignore.

[00:00:19]An impact from an asteroid that size could wipe out an entire metro area and cause serious damage around it as well.

[00:00:27]Shockwaves, fires, a massive explosion in the sky, and depending on where it hits, possible tsunamis. For a while, it was high up on NASA's watch list, but as tracking data improved, the risk went down and eventually got removed altogether. That said, it's still flying around out there, and its orbit brings it close to Earth every few decades. So, while it's off the wait list for now, may not be forever. The thing with space rocks like this is that even a tiny nudge from something else, like gravity from a nearby planet or another close pass, could alter its path just enough to cause trouble later on. 2001 WN5 doesn't get talked about a lot, but it's coming really close in the not-so-distant [music] future. It's just over 2,600 ft across, way bigger than most of the others we've mentioned. It's expected to pass by Earth in June of 2028, and it's going to come within 155,000 mi. That might sound [music] far, but it's actually way closer than the moon.

[00:01:28]Close enough that you could possibly see this with binoculars. If it were to hit, we'd be in serious trouble. An object that big [music] could cause destruction on a huge scale. Luckily, it's not expected to collide with us, at least not this time around, but because it's passing so close, scientists are keeping a very [music] close eye on it. It's one of those rare chances to study a big asteroid up close without it, of course, [music] hitting us. The other reason they're paying such close attention is because Earth's gravity might slightly change its orbit during the flyby, and if that happens, future passes could end up a lot more [music] dangerous.