On October 12, a 10-30 meter (32-98 foot) asteroid is set to make a 'close' flyby of Earth. 

The asteroid, named 2012 TC4, will pass just 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers) from Earth for the first time since it went out of range in 2012.  

Although NASA researchers are certain that it will not come any closer than this, if the asteroid did hit Earth, it could lead to a much more devastating level of impact than the 18-meter asteroid that hit the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013.

That particular blast injured about 1,500 people, and damaged over 7,000 buildings, and experts now say 2012 TC4 is 'something to keep an eye on. According to NASA's jet Propulsion Laboratory, the asteroid's next 'close-approach' to Earth will take place on December 29, 2019 - although at a much further distance of more than 21 million miles (34 million kilometers). 

If it were to make impact with Earth's atmosphere, scientists predict the space rock would burn up before hitting the surface. But, this could still cause damage and injuries at the ground level. 

'It is something to keep an eye on,' Dr Judit Györgyey-Ries, an astronomer at the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory, told Astrowatch. NASA hopes to use its international network of observatories to recover, track and characterize asteroid 2012 TC4. 

As it starts to approach Earth in the coming months, large telescopes will be used to detect it and establish the asteroid's precise trajectory.

The new observations are expected to help refine knowledge about its orbit, narrowing the uncertainty about how far it will be from Earth at its closest approach in October. A meteor that blazed across southern Urals in February 2013 was the largest recorded meteor strike in more than a century.

More than 1,500 people were injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs, as it landed near the city of Chelyabinsk.