NASA Meteor WARNING: Risk of 70m wide asteroid smashing into Earth ‘increased’

When first discovered in 2014, Apophis had a record-breaking collision risk of four on the Torino scale.

Steve Chesley, a NASA scientist, along with Paul Khodas from the jet propulsion laboratory of NASA, have now predicted the collision could occur on April 13, 2036.

Mr Chesley said: “Apophis has been one of those celestial bodies that has captured the public’s interest since it was discovered in 2004.

“Updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13 2036 has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million.”

NEOs frequently fly past the Earth on their journey around the Sun but rarely make contact with the planet.

Of the 19,563 asteroids and 107 comets that have been discovered only 817 are on the Near Earth Object Coordination Centre’s ‘Risk List’.