Asteroid to Fly by Earth Thursday

By Myles Collier, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, June 14, 2012

Astronomers have revealed that an asteroid will pass near Earth on Thursday, coming really close but not posing any threat of impacting our planet.

The asteroid labeled 2012 LZ1, is roughly 1,650 feet across and its trajectory will take the space rock within 14 lunar distances of Earth. Astronomers were sure that the asteroid will not impact Earth, but they did state that it will be close enough to be filmed on camera, according to Space.com.

According to several reports the asteroid was recently discovered after being detected on radar by Rob McNaught and his team using the Uppsala Schmidt telescope located at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

Astronomers explained that late Thursday 2012 LZ1 will pass Earth at a distance of about 3.35 million miles. Yet due to the proximity to Earth the space rock is considered potentially hazardous and was classified as such.

Researchers state that the asteroid has a minimal probability of impacting earth but any object that is more than 500 feet in diameter and comes within 4.65 million miles is classified as potentially hazardous, according to NASA.

This close call was similar to another asteroid that passed close to earth earlier this year.

Back in the beginning of April bus-sized asteroid 2012 FP35 came within 96,000 miles of Earth. It was followed a few hours later by asteroid 2012 FS35, which is the size of a passenger car and passed Earth at a range of 36,000 miles.

Given the close proximity to earth astronomers are streaming the passing asteroid on the internet. A team running the Slooh Space Camera will follow the asteroid from the telescope which is based on the Canary Islands. The live stream will begin at 8:00 p. m. Eastern Standard Time and can be found using the link below.

The link for Slooh's website: http://events.slooh.com/