Asteroid bigger than the London Eye to pass by Earth this week, Nasa says

Object will fly by safely and space agency has not issued any kind of 'warning'

Two objects will fly by Earth this weekend, passing by safely despite suggestions that Nasa has warned they could pose a threat.

The asteroids are classed as "potentially hazardous" by the space agency, but that is a relatively flexible definition that simply means they could cause problems at some point in the future.

That has not stopped a number of stories reporting that Nasa has issued "warnings" about the dangers from the objects, or suggestions that the objects are flying at rather than past the Earth.

In fact, the two objects – known as 2016 DY30 and 2020 ME3 – will be further away than the Moon, even at their closest point to Earth.

After that, they will carry on our into the rest of our solar system, as they continue their journey around our neighbourhood.

Because the objects could come relatively close to Earth as they continue their journey, they are given the designation near-Earth objects, and "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids" or PHAs. But it is important to note that the "potentially hazardous" part of that description is related to their journeys in the future, not this flyby, which will happen at a distance so safe that the objects will not be visible, let alone threatening.

The bigger of the two objects is 2020ND, which is 170-metres across and so has been described as being roughly 150 per cent of the London Eye. While that would make it a relatively big object on the Earth, it is not notably large for an asteroid.

It will come within roughly 0.034 AU, or about five million kilometres, of Earth. That is much further away than the Moon, which is an average of 500,000 kilometres away.

While it won't be possible to spot either of the asteroids, and they will not make any difference to the Earth in the foreseeable future, there is a new visitor to our skies that is both visible and important. Comet Neowise is on its way past Earth at the moment, and can be seen with the naked eye if it is timed right.

Unlike the new asteroids, Nasa has extensively commented on Comet Neowise, with astronauts sharing images of the object and the space agency giving information on how it can best be seen.