LONDON, Sept 2: British astronomers monitoring near-Earth objects said Tuesday there was a slim chance that a newly-discovered asteroid could hit Earth in March 2014.

The large rock — known as 2003 QQ47 — has a mass of around 2.6 billion tons, and is 1.2 kilometres wide.

The possible collision on March 21, 2014, has been classified as “an event meriting careful monitoring” on the Torino scale, which rates the chances of newly discovered asteroids and comets hitting the Earth.

The asteroid is around one-tenth of the size of the meteor that is believed to have wiped out dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago.

In the unlikely event of 2003 QQ47 hitting Earth, the rock would have the force of 350,000 megatons — around eight million times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.On impact it would be travelling at 125,000kms a hour.

But astronomers say the probability of such a collision was just one in 909,000, and while they could make an educated guess as to the day of impact, they could not reckon exactly where it would be.

“As additional observations are made over the coming months, and the uncertainties decrease, asteroid 2003 QQ47 is likely to drop down the Torino scale,” said Kevin Yates, project manager of the near-Earth object information centre in Leicestershire, central England.

The centre was set up by the British government to keep track and provide reliable information on near-Earth objects, also known as NEOs.

Asteroids such as 2003 QQ47 are chunks of rock left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Most are kept at a safe distance from Earth in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

But the gravitational influence of giant planets such as Jupiter can nudge asteroids out of these safe orbits and send them plunging into the Earth’s neighbourhood. —AFP