Astronomers can guess the object’s size from its brightness, but this can produce a wide range of results. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops, initially stood about 480 ft tall. This means it could outstretch the Empire State Building’s 1450 ft height. Even at its smallest estimate, the asteroid outstretches the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, which, historians think, was a measly 480 ft tall (or 280 Egyptian Royal cubits) when first built. Astronomers have a much better idea of the object's orbit than its size.

The asteroid will fly within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of Earth on March 2, 2018. The newfound near-Earth asteroid, called 2018 DV1, is about the size of a bus and will approach within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of Earth during its flyby, according to scientists with NASA's Asteroid Watch program. The Virtual Telescope Project will host a free webcast, led by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi in Ceccano, Italy, for the event. That asteroid got within about 196,000 miles (315,000 km) of Earth during that flyby. The asteroid will be nearly 870,000 miles (1.4 million km) from Earth at its closest point during the flyby.

The newfound near-Earth asteroid, called 2018 DV1, is about the size of a bus and will approach within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of Earth during its flyby, according to scientists with NASA's Asteroid Watch program. The asteroid is about 23 feet (7 meters) wide, the program's asteroid-tracking widget stated. The Virtual Telescope Project will host a free webcast, led by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi in Ceccano, Italy, for the event. The Virtual Telescope Project is also tracking another asteroid, called 2017 VR12, as it makes its own close flyby of Earth on March 7. The asteroid will be nearly 870,000 miles (1.4 million km) from Earth at its closest point during the flyby.

Currently Nasa would not be able to deflect an asteroid if it were heading for Earth but it could mitigate the impact and take measures that would protect lives and property. Finding out about the orbit trajectory, size, shape, mass, composition and rotational dynamics would help experts determine the severity of a potential impact. The impact would change the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing so well before the predicted impact, this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid's path away from Earth. The energy - which was equivalent to 500,000 tonnes of TNT - and injured more than 1,000 people Currently Nasa would not be able to deflect an asteroid if it were heading for Earth but it could mitigate the impact and take measures that would protect lives and property. The impact would change the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing so well before the predicted impact, this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid's path away from Earth.

An asteroid is going to come extremely close to Earth on Friday—and everything is going to be absolutely fine. Based on calculations in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Small-Body Database, though, the asteroid has likely come close to Earth once every few years. This is the closest in decades that it has ever or is expected to ever come, though. (Counterintuitively, the lower the magnitude is, the bigger the asteroid is expected to be.) 2018 DV1 falls short of the magnitude criteria, so it’s extremely unlikely that it would actually do any damage even if it did plummet to Earth. 2018 DV1 is actually expected to stop by earth again on February 26, 2019—though that time, relatively speaking, it’s expected to keep its distance a bit more.