Giant meteors are about to fly through the earth

Scientists predict that a 2.7km long asteroid will fly over the earth later this month.

The 1998 QE2 meteorite will be closest to Earth at a distance of 5.7 million kilometers (15 times the distance between the earth and the moon) on May 31. After flying through the earth, this meteorite will not return to our planet for at least two centuries.

A 2.7km long meteorite is about to fly near the earth. (Artwork: EPA)

The Meteorite 1998 QE2 was discovered in August 1998 by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Scientists plan to use a 70-meter telescope at the Goldstone Observatory in the Mojave Desert in California to track the meteorite as it flies near the earth. Although at a distance of nearly 6 million kilometers, astronomers will gain meteorite images with a width of about 3.5 meters.

Dr. Lance Benner, of the US Space Agency's Jet Laboratory (NASA), said: 'It will be interesting to see for the first time the detailed images of this meteorite. With telescopes, we can turn a small object with a bright dot when viewed with the naked eye into a miniature world. "

In 2016, NASA will launch a spacecraft to sample one of the most dangerous near-earth meteorites (NEO), Bennu. Bennu is over 500m wider and often flies over the earth at about 500,000km every 6 years.