A potentially hazardous asteroid is heading towards Earth, but don't worry — Spanish researchers say it has a one-in-a-thousand chance of hitting the planet and impact wouldn't happen until 2182.

"The total impact probability of asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 can be estimated in 0.00092 — approximately one-in-a-thousand chance — but what is most surprising is that over half of this chance (0.00054) corresponds to 2182," said María Eugenia Sansaturio, co-author of the study and researcher at the Universidad de Valladolid. The study appears in the science journal Icarus.

Asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 was discovered in 1999 and is about 560 meters in diameter. It is listed as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says is based on an asteroid's potential "to make threatening close approaches to the Earth."

There are currently 1,140 PHAs, NASA reports on its website.