NASA asteroid tracker: Giant asteroid hurtling past Earth at 33,700mph TODAY

“But if they are discovered early enough, their point of impact could be estimated with a good degree of accuracy, and measures could be taken to protect people.

“Today, no known object merits any worry, but many remain undiscovered, so we need to keep searching.”

In the event of an approaching asteroid strike, NASA said knowing the shape, size and velocity of a space rock can help knock it out of orbit.

Today, Asteroid DF31 will approach the Earth from an approximate distance of 0.02383 astronomical units (au).