Nasa has captured the best ever images of a ‘binary asteroid’ made up of two space rocks orbiting each other.

The twin asteroid is called 2017 YE5 and features one relatively bright object and darker evil twin.

Both rocks are roughly the same size, which is highly unusual. It is only the fourth ‘equal mass’ binary near-Earth asteroid ever detected.

Nasa finds asteroid with an evil twin that's 'potentially hazardous' to Earth NASA
This grainy image is one of the most detailed pics of a binary asteroid ever taken
Nasa finds asteroid with an evil twin that's 'potentially hazardous' to EarthNASA
An illustration of the pair of space rocks

Although 2017 YE5 is classified as ‘potentially hazardous’, it’s not on a collision course with Earth.

But if it did hit us, we would certainly know about it.

The twin asteroids are each about 900 metres in size. If just one of them smased into our planet, it would wipe out a city, kill millions and cause devastation on a continent-wide scale.

A twin impact could cause twice as much damage and force our species into a fight for survival.

Up Next

Happily, we won’t have to think about it for almost two centuries.

On June 21, the asteroid came closer to Earth than it will be for at least the next 170 years, coming within 3.7 million miles of humanity’s homeworld.

Astronomers can easily track massive space rocks big enough to cause the extinction of humanity. But smaller asteroids which could wipe out a city might only be detected hours or days before they smash into our planet.

Last month, a minor asteroid impact reminded humanity of its dispiriting impotence in the face of cruel cosmic fate Nasa’s Planetary Defence team glimpsed a six-foot-wide asteroid called 2018 LA on Saturday morning.

Hours later, it hit Earth travelling at 38,000 mph and caused a huge fireball to appear in the sky above Botswana, Africa.

‘This was a much smaller object than we are tasked to detect and warn about,’ said Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer at NASA Headquarters.