It’s been a good year for watching the sky so far; just in the past couple of months, we’ve been treated to a super moon, the transit of Venus, and an annular solar eclipse. And tonight, for some lucky people, a huge asteroid will be visible in the sky.
The asteroid is about 1,650 feet wide and, at 14 times the distance of the Earth from the moon, there’s no danger of it breaking our atmosphere. It should, however, come close enough for cameras to pick it up, according to some professional skywatchers.
Scientists have named the asteroid 2012 LZ1 after its discovery last week and are anxiously awaiting the event with cameras at the ready. You can go to http://events.slooh.com/ to watch the asteroid’s path live; the site currently has a countdown clock until the “Near Earth Event”.
Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the asteroid is classified as “potentially hazardous”, but there’s no need to call in reinforcements just yet; scientists insist it won’t come close enough to us do do any damage.
Glad this one is missing us! Huge asteroid, half a kilometer wide, will fly by in tonight’s sky! http://t.co/lxpGlkOX
Huge Asteroid to Fly by Earth Thursday: The chunk of rock and ice is the size of a city block and you can… http://t.co/dGpNNiYT #Space
“Huge asteroid to fly by Earth today” http://t.co/YvIY231R
In 11 hours and 12 minutes… RT @CBS21NEWS “Huge asteroid to fly by Earth today” http://t.co/kdgrCasS
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