When you hear the words “asteroid” and “Earth”, for a few seconds there is a bit of major concern. Is this thing going to hit us? How big is it?
The asteroid, named 2014 DX110, is expected to fly past the Earth without incident on Wednesday. Scientists aren’t anticipating any kind of collision. Instead, they say that the asteroid will miss us by a distance of roughly 217,000 miles.
The interesting thing about this is that it means 2014 DX110 will be closer to us than our own Moon.
As for size, the asteroid is estimated to be anywhere from 45 to 130 ft in diameter. While that could be devastating for a region of the population should it hit, it’s nowhere near large enough to pose a major threat to human life.
For instance, should an asteroid that’s roughly a half a mile wide hit the Earth, it would put enough dust into our atmosphere to block out the Sun for several years. That kind of event would have a massive impact on humanity. Scary, but not something this little asteroid is capable of at its size.
I wonder if @BarackObama has asked Bruce Willis to take care of the #asteroid that is hurtling towards Earth.
— Murph's Law (@tmbez) March 5, 2014
Now that we’ve established that this tiny asteroid is relatively harmless and relief has set in, no doubt the next question is how and when can we see the cute little space rock as it races past our planet?
Live streaming pengamatan melintasnya asteroid 2014 DX110 besok pagi (6/3) tersedia di http://t.co/a0iHcHJZGn #AstroLive
— Info Astronomy (@infoAstronomy) March 5, 2014
An asteroid will pass Earth closer than the moon today. (Bread & milk panic not required) http://t.co/kaunJgAiGQ
— newsobserver.com (@newsobserver) March 5, 2014
It will is expected to go flying past our planet today. Depending on where you are in the world, you may be able to see it clearly via telescope. There will be places that you can watch it online if the weather is lousy where you live and or you just can’t get outdoors.
Hopefully things will go better for those wanting a glimpse of 2014 DX110 than it did for those wanting to see asteroid 2000 EM26 last month. Excited persons flooded various internet locations for a live stream view and it resulted in site crashes.
One such site was Slooh, which had been promoting a live stream view of the event for some time. It didn’t end well unfortunately. Will things go more smoothly this time? We’ll find out in a few hours.
The asteroid passes today, are you excited or petrified? Comment below!
Image via YouTube