An asteroid the size of an airplane is heading toward Earth.

      Asteroid 2025 PM, whose size is comparable to a passenger airliner, will pass by Earth on August 17 at 12:03 Moscow time (MSK). According to the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of IKI and ISEF, the celestial body will fly by at a distance of roughly one lunar orbital diameter — about 1 million kilometers.

      According to NASA, 2025 PM will come within 654,000 miles of our planet. The Jerusalem Post compares its mass to three tyrannosaurs, each of which could have weighed up to 15 tons, but the object's exact mass is still unknown.

      The asteroid was discovered on August 1 and has already been classified as potentially hazardous due to the unusually close approach to Earth. It belongs to the Apollo group — near-Earth asteroids whose orbits cross Earth's from the outside. Preliminary data indicate it is a rocky boulder without volatile materials.

      Experts emphasize that the likelihood of the asteroid being captured by Earth is "very small." Its trajectory could change only if it collides with another celestial body.

      At the end of September this year another flyby of a larger asteroid at a similar distance is expected, and in April 2029 the 375-meter-wide asteroid Apophis will approach Earth — about 2 billion people in Europe, Africa and Asia will be able to see it with the naked eye.