NASA captures image of ‘apocalypse asteroid’ that could strike Earth

The US space agency snapped the image of 500metre-wide Bennu using its spacecraft OSIRIS-Rex during its orbit of the space rock.

The 1,600ft rock – situated between Earth and Mars – weighs 87 million tonnes and is currently orbiting the sun.

In the snap, Bennu can be seen looming on the right, while Earth and the moon are glowing in the bottom-left corner.

OSIRIS-Rex started orbiting Bennu late last year and is set to land on it in a sample-collecting mission in 2020.

NASA has said there is a slim chance the asteroid could make impact with Earth on September 25, 2135.

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