The European Space Agency has confirmed that 2021 QM1 won't cause damage to Earth in 2052, but will come 'dangerously close' - after detecting it with the world's most sensitive telescope.

There are no chances of an asteroid hitting the Earth, despite earlier fears. However, it will come particularly close.

European Space Agency has confirmed that a collision on April 2, 2052, will not occur, bringing the welcomed news just before World Asteroid Day. The threat of this asteroid had been at the top of global risk lists for months as concerns over its potential impact grew.

The European Space Agency has confirmed that '2021 QM1' has been removed from their list since they merged with the European Southern Observatory earlier this year.

The false risk was discovered using one of the world's most sensitive telescopes, with the experts later announcing the event would no longer occur. The rock was first discovered on August 28, 2021, by the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.

“Early observations enabled us to gain an understanding of the asteroid's path, which we could then project into the future,” explained ESA's head of planetary defense, Richard Moissl.

In 2052, it could come dangerously close to Earth. We could see its future paths around the Sun. As more observations were made of the asteroid, the greater the risk became.'

Marco Micheli said that to see what QM1 might be, they needed to wait until it passed out of the Sun's glare in 2021.

European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) was prepared and a small window was available to detect a 'risky asteroid.'

'There would have to be thousands of stars behind our small, faint, receding asteroid,' said astronomer Olivier Hainaut.