NASA scientists are closely monitoring 120-foot long Asteroid 2024 XN1, which they say is set to "skim" Earth on December 24th at a speed of 14,743 miles per hour. The asteroid is considered by NASA to be a Amor class Near-Earth Object (NEO).
The "Christmas Eve asteroid" is about the size of a 10-story building with a diameter of 95 to 230 feet. According to the Daily Mail, "scientists estimate that it would impact with a force equivalent to 12 million tonnes of TNT and flatten an area of 700 square miles" if it were to slam into Earth.
Thankfully, the asteroid will be only "skimming" planet Earth at a distance of around 4.48 million miles. Which, on the surface, may sound like a great distance. In terms of space, however, the average distance between the Earth and the Sun is about 93 million miles. Mars is 245.22 million miles from Earth.
NASA's Orbit Viewer shows the relative closeness of Asteroid 2024 XN1 and Earth when it passes by on "close approach" on Dec. 24. The moment that the asteroid will be closest to Earth is estimated to be at 9:56 p.m. ET.
There is also the fact that NASA only just spotted Asteroid 2024 XN1 on Dec. 12.
That being said, Jess Lee, an astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told the Daily Mail, "It will be very far away, around 18 times further away from the Earth than the Moon is, and so with this predicted path won't come close enough to hit the Earth."
Then again, as the Times of India also pointed out on Friday, "Multiple asteroids are set to make relatively close approaches to Earth in the coming days."