There's a massive asteroid hurtling towards us and scientists have determined the date when this planet killer will end all life on Earth.

March 16, 2880.

The day the world will finally end is still 866 years away. Good for us. Bad for our descendants.

But short of our managing to turn the killer away, there's a huge chance Asteroid (29075) 1950 DA will do to humankind what another asteroid did to the dinosaurs 66 million years ago: extinction.

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Astronomers say the wildly spinning asteroid has a 1 in 300 chance of ramming into the Earth. Those odds might seem large by terrestrial standards but is about the equivalent of a direct hit on the cosmic scale.

It also represents a risk 50 percent greater than an Earth impact from all other asteroids.

Because of this, astronomers are convinced Asteroid 1950 DA is the asteroid most likely to smash into the Earth.

When it crashes into the planet, Asteroid 1950 DA will have a destructive power equivalent to some 44,800 megatonnes of TNT.

Scientists agree an impact as enormous as this would cause an indescribable explosion; change the worldwide climate and destroy human life.

The cataclysm would probably be equal in sheer destructiveness to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event caused by an asteroid that hit off the coast of Mexico 66 million years ago.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville believe the asteroid will hurtle into the Atlantic Ocean at the fantastic speed of 38,000 miles per hour.

In a research paper published in the science journal, Nature, researchers from the university said the asteroid has a size of one kilometer and is travelling at nine miles per  second relative to the Earth.

Asteroid 1950 DA is also rotating so rapidly at one rotation every two hours and six minutes that it defies gravity.

It was discovered on February 23, 1950 by Carl Wirtanen at the Lick Observatory in California. On March 5, 2001, Asteroid 1950 DA made a very close approach to Earth at only 7.79 million kilometers.

It was closely studied by astronomers during this close approach from March 3 to 7, 2001.

University of Tennessee researchers are currently studying ways as to how best to throw Asteroid 1950 DA off course.

Other astronomers, however, believe the asteroid will miss the Earth entirely in 2880. A new analysis of the asteroid's trajectory in October 2013 claims the 2880 impact is unlikely.