Potentially hazardous asteroid as big as Eiffel Tower to zip past Earth on June 1 Potentially hazardous asteroid as big as Eiffel Tower to zip past Earth on June 1 Nasa tracks over 26,000 near-Earth asteroids and over 1000 of these are considered potentially hazardous. advertisement The asteroid's path as seen in White crosses Earth's orbit. (Source: JPL) From Judgment Day to Armageddon, movie after movie has tried to capture what it would be like if a giant asteroid struck Earth. What happens when an asteroid manages to enter our planet's atmosphere has always remained a topic of fascination and fear alike. Earth and the Moon have had several impact events as some asteroids manage to enter the atmosphere, surviving the burn.