A Gigantic Asteroid Will Skim Past Earth TONIGHT!

Main image via Earth Sky

NASA has been tracking a gigantic asteroid, which is bigger than the Empire State Building in New York City, for several months now.

The asteroid, labelled 2017 VR12, will be 3.76 lunar-distances away at its closest distance to Earth at 8.53pm Malaysian time tonight (7 March).

Orbit of asteroid 2017 VR12, via Gideon van Buitenen (@giddgvb on Twitter).

Thankfully for us, even though the VR12 will be very close to Earth, there’s no risk of it crashing into us (phew!).

Because it has the potential to make close approaches to Earth and is big enough to cause significant regional damage if it were to strike, 2017 VR12 is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid by the Minor Planet Center.

 

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2017 VR12 is passing closest to Earth tonight! This is from last night. The large 900 foot diameter space rock is going to pass by us at 4X the moon's distance. And moving faster than a bullet, 15,000mph! Video is 74 frames, 30 seconds apiece, tracking on the asteroid. #astro #astronomy #astronomia #astrophotography #astrophotos #APOD #cosmos #galaxy #galaxies #Hubble #longexposure #milkyway #nasa #nightsky #asteroid #sky #space  #stars #telescope #universe

A post shared by Brian D. Ottum, PhD (@astropicsdaily) on Mar 6, 2018 at 8:58am PST

The Virtual Telescope Project is offering two live feeds for online viewing of this asteroid as it hurls past us. You can start watching the free live feed from 6pm (7 March), live from Arizona.

The videos are accessible here.

Article via Earth Sky