Earthlings can breathe a sigh of relief after US space agency Nasa confirmed the planet was "safe" from a once-feared asteroid for the next 100 years at least.

Axar.az reports that Nasa had deemed Apophis to be one of the most dangerous asteroids to Earth after its discovery in 2004.

Close calls in 2029 and 2036 were predicted and later ruled out. A slight threat still remained for 2068.

But now Nasa has dismissed that threat based on new analysis of the asteroid.

"A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility any more, and our calculations don't show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years," Davide Farnocchia, a scientist who studies near-Earth objects for Nasa, said in a statement on Friday.

Named after the ancient Egyptian god of chaos and darkness, Apophis is estimated to measure 340m (1,100ft) across - about the length of three UK football pitches.

The asteroid recently made a distant flyby of Earth on 5 March, passing within 17 million km (10 million miles) of the planet.