NASA assured, however, that this will be a 'near accident', and there is no chance of the asteroid hitting the planet.

This newly discovered asteroid will pass 3,600 kilometres above the southern tip of South America, that is, ten times closer than the sets of communication satellites that circulate in the sky, the space agency also highlighted.

Even if the space rock came much closer to Earth, the scientists explained that most of it would burn up in the atmosphere, with some of the larger pieces likely to fall as meteorites.

NASA's impact risk assessment system, Scout, quickly ruled out an impact, said lead developer Davide Farnocchia.

"But, despite the few observations, it was able to predict that the asteroid will make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth", underlined Farnocchia quoted in a statement.

"In fact, this is one of the closest ever recorded close approaches of an object approaching Earth," he added.

Discovered on Saturday, the asteroid known as 2023 BU is believed to be between 3.5 metres and 8.5 metres in diameter. It was first discovered by the same amateur astronomer in Crimea, Gennady Borisov, who discovered an interstellar comet in 2019.

The asteroid's path will be drastically altered by Earth's gravity once it passes by, and instead of completing one lap around the sun every 359 days, it will move in an oval orbit lasting 425 days, according to NASA.