A “potentially dangerous” asteroid passes by Earth today.How to watch live

• A gigantic “City Killer” asteroid is scheduled to safely pass Earth today at 41,000 miles per hour.
• Its closest approach to Earth will be 1.77 million miles, more than seven times the distance to the Moon.
• Although it cannot be seen with the naked eye, the event can be watched live on YouTube.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has discovered a giant “city killer” asteroid hurtling toward Earth. It is scheduled to make its closest approach to Earth this afternoon, about 1.77 million miles away.

For reference, the Moon is approximately 239,000 miles from Earth, making this asteroid 7.4 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

The high-speed space rock is expected to hurtle at about 41,000 miles per hour and has a diameter of about 890 feet, or about the size of an American football stadium, the news agency said. NASA.

Experts sometimes refer to asteroids of this size as “city killers.” Because if an asteroid hits a populated area on Earth, it can destroy entire cities.

Still, this asteroid is too small and far away to be seen without a telescope.

It’s about 10,000 times fainter than the faintest star visible to the naked eye, Gianluca Masi, an astrophysicist and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project, told Business Insider in an email.

But if you want to catch a glimpse of an asteroid hurtling past, you’re in luck.

Masi and his colleagues will be recording the event live today starting at 1pm ET.You can watch the live stream below YouTube Or in the video below.

Livestream tracks asteroid 2008 OS7 as it flies close to Earth. Viewers will be able to distinguish it as a small dot passing by other fixed small dots in the background, aka stars. Masi said the livestream will last about 45 minutes.

VTP has recorded other flights like this, which are “always very fascinating to watch,” Masi told BI.

About Asteroid 2008 OS7

Asteroid 2008 OS7 orbits the sun every 962 days. After passing Earth, it follows an elliptical path through the solar system.

Its elliptical orbit means that each time the asteroid approaches Earth, its distance from our planet changes significantly.

For example, website space reference The next closest approach will be in July 2037, when it will be approximately 9.7 million miles from Earth.

potentially dangerous asteroid

What is Asteroid 2008 OS7? phone call from NASA It is a “potentially dangerous” asteroid because of its size and the close distance it will pass Earth.

Asteroids are considered potentially hazardous if they are at least 460 feet in diameter and orbit Earth at a distance of no more than about 4.65 million miles.

Scientists have identified more than 34,000 near-Earth objects. Just over 2,300 are designated as potentially hazardous.

But NASA suspects there may be more that have yet to be discovered. If a giant asteroid is on a course to hit Earth, you’ll need to: 5-10 year warning To destroy or divert it.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Near-Earth Object Probe Missionis scheduled to be launched in September 2027. NASA will send an infrared space telescope into Earth’s orbit to expand its search for near-Earth objects that could threaten Earth.