NASA asteroid 2023 DW: is it on course to collide with Earth, how big is it, when could it hit?

US space agency NASA has spoken out about a new asteroid, which could be on course to collide with Earth in the next few decades.

The ‘2023 DW’ asteroid was discovered by scientists on 27 February. Its path and trajectory has been tracked ever since, along with the likelihood of it hitting the surface.

New updates about the asteroid have revealed how likely it is the space rock could come to crashing into Earth, although NASA says there is no need to panic yet - and it could be quite a while before it becomes a real threat.

The space agency said in a tweet that 2023 DW “has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2046”, and scientists will continue to monitor it in years to come.

Is the 2023 DW asteroid on track to collide with Earth?

Nasa has said that there is a “very small chance” of the asteroid hitting Earth. When it was discovered, the chances of the asteroid hitting were at around one in 1,200.

Odds increased over the next few days, with experts now predicting a one in 560 chance of the asteroid hitting Earth. While the chance of a collision has gone up, in the grand scheme of things there still remains just a small chance of this happening.

However, the risk level is expected to go up as experts collect more data. A NASA representative said on Tuesday (7 March): "Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future.”

When could the 2023 DW asteroid hit Earth?

Although the odds are climbing on the likelihood of the asteroid hitting, it won’t happen for quite some time - if at all. In the unlikely event that the asteroid breaches our orbit, NASA experts predict that the earliest this could happen is around Valentine’s day - 14 February - 2046.

How big is the 2023 DW asteroid?

NASA scientists were able to measure the size of the asteroid when they first detected it on 27 February. The asteroid is said to be around 165 feet - or 50 metres - long.

This equates to around the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool or the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. An impact from an object this size could cause severe damage around its landing site.

In 2013, an asteroid roughly around half the size of 2023 DW landed in Russia. It damaged thousands of buildings in the vicinity, as well as injuring more than 1,000 people.