Space: A mile-wide asteroid is about to fly past Earth

An Asteroid that's a mile wide is going to fly close to Earth!

Yes - a mile wide!

And when we say "close to Earth" we mean 3.9 million miles away - but that's still considered quite close in space terms!

The big asteroid is known to scientists as 1998 OR2, and astronomers are hoping and looking forward to getting a closer look at the asteroid to learn more about it.

It's due to fly past Earth on Wednesday, 29 April.

The asteroid poses no threat to Earth, in fact one of Nasa's scientists said: "There are no asteroids which have any significant chance of hitting the Earth that are of any significant size."

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has been tracking this particular asteroid since 1998.

It's 1.2 miles wide and scientists have joked that the latest image of the asteroid look like it's wearing a mask because of all the dust and debris around it.

The asteroid is classed as a PHO (Potentially Hazardrous Object) because it's bigger than 140 metres and will come within five million miles of Earth's orbit - but no known PHO poses an immediate danger to the planet.