The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has warned of an asteroid 22 to 49 meters in diameter approaching Earth.

On September 1, the celestial body, dubbed 2011 ES4, will fly past the Earth at a distance of about 120 thousand km at a speed of about 8 km / s.

2011 ES4 was opened in March 2011. Astronomers refer it to Apollo - asteroids whose orbits cross the Earth's orbit. They are named so in honor of the first celestial body from this group - the asteroid Apollo discovered in 1932, TASS reported.

To date, astronomers have discovered in near-earth space, that is, within 0.05 astronomical units, or 7 million km, about 8 thousand asteroids, the size of which exceeds 140 m. According to NASA experts, such celestial bodies are classified as potentially dangerous. The total number of large asteroids in near-earth space can reach 25 thousand.