You can watch a mile-long asteroid pass by Earth via live stream this week
Well 2020 is just full of surprises, isn’t it? Coronavirus, UFO’s, celebrities on Tik Tok, and now an asteroid. According to NASA, a mile-wide meteor is expected to fly relatively close to earth this week, so close, in fact, you might be able to see it with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. If you have neither, you can actually also catch the close encounter here starting today, April 28th until the 29th, which is being broadcast via live stream.
There’s no reason to panic though, folks. The object, which was actually first spotted in 1998, will still be about 3.9 million miles away, which is still 16 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Earth definitely will not be impacted by the passer-by… this time around. 60 years from now, that might be a different story. Keyword: MIGHT.
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Known as 1998 OR2, this particular meteor has been classified as a “PHO” or a potentially hazardous object. This doesn’t mean it will hit Earth, guys, it just means that the closer it gets the more likely the debris is to impact planets or moons within close range.
Luckily, this week’s close (ish) encounter with the asteroid, will give NASA the ability to monitor and observe the object better, which could make a difference 60 years from now when it makes an appearance again.
We won’t see this bad boy again until almost the end of the century and by then we hope that they’ll have some kick-ass laser gun or something to completely disintegrate any threat to the atmosphere. Wishful thinking perhaps? Or perhaps not! Crazier things have happened, people!
