The asteroid is known as 1990 MU and it is currently completing another orbit of the Sun. It is between 4-9 kilometers in diameter and on June 6, 2027, it is set to come within 0.03 AU – astronomical unit. One AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, so coming within just 0.03 AU is perilously close. However, NASA Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson pointed out earlier that only an asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth would pose a real threat, and that there are plenty of asteroids passing in the vicinity of our planet virtually all the time. While the asteroid will be close within the next decade, it will be even closer in 2058, when it comes within 0.02 AU – less than three million kilometers.
Scientists estimate that a life-ending asteroid, such as the one which put an end to the dinosaur’s reign, would collide with Earth every 100 million years or so. NASA employee Robert Frost, who works as an instructor and flight controller for the space agency said in an interview that governments don’t have solutions for such event. There would be little which can be done to prepare for the inevitable.
