Don't worry, this big boy isn't on a collision course.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
An asteroid the size of a small town, and its smaller satellite “moon,” are zooming past Earth this week, and you can watch on Friday afternoon as binary asteroid “1998 QE2” reaches its closet point to Earth for the next 200 years.
The 1.7-mile-long asteroid and its smaller satellite, which was just discovered this week, will come closest to Earth around 2 p.m. PT, but will still safely stay about 15 lunar distances away from us.
The stream of NASA TV embedded below will show live telescope shots of QE2, beginning at 10 a.m. PT Friday:
Editor’s note: Jump to 0:31:27 below to hear the commentators announce that the asteroid is at its closest point to Earth.
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