Asteroid could be about to wipe out life on Earth, online pastor says in video that is almost certainly false

It’s true that a small asteroid will be flying past — and that Nasa had to revise its projections — but it’ll be very surprising if the rock really will bring about Earth’s ‘last hour’

Asteroid 2011 UW-158 will pass 1.5 million miles away from Earth

An asteroid is about to fly past Earth —and some people are convinced that it’s a sign of the end times. (It's not.)

The rock, known as 2013 TX68, is almost certainly going to pass by us without making any difference to life on Earth. But an internet pastor claims otherwise — arguing that it could be our “last hour”.

"The end times are here,” said Anita Fuentes in a video that was reported by The Sun. “It could be the last hour, the last second.

"We have to pay attention to all this that we're seeing."

But the claims have been completely rejected by Nasa, which has a centre specifically to track asteroids. The agency has confirmed that there will be no threat from the asteroid.

It did say that it had miscalculated the date and distance that the rock would fly by, last month. But the Earth is still very much safe.

"We already knew this asteroid, 2013 TX68, would safely fly past Earth in early March, but this additional data allow us to get a better handle on its orbital path," said Paul Chodas, manager of Nasa’s centre for tracking Near-Earth Objects. "The data indicate that this small asteroid will probably pass much farther away from Earth than previously thought."

The agency admitted that the rock might fly a little closer to Earth than expected. But it will get no closer than 15,000 miles — way further away than would be needed to cause any meaningful difference on Earth.