Community Corner

Looking for the Big Asteroid to Pass Earth Tonight?

You may be surprised by what you see, says an astronomy expert at Tellus Science Museum.

Scientist say an asteroid the size of a city block will whiz very near Earth tonight —within about one-fourth of the distance to the moon.

The space rock, called asteroid 2012 TC4, is about 56 feet wide, but poses no danger of impacting Earth, according NASA, Space.com reports. Likely, you won't be able to see it with the naked eye, according to Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville.

"There is a 100-foot diameter asteroid passing the Earth tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Friday morning) at a distance of about 59,000 miles," officials said in a statement. "The media is saying it is visible, but it's at 13.7 magnitude, that’s about 1,500 times fainter than you can see with the unaided eye.

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"Our telescope could see it but it would be a very faint dot at best. So look south around midnight and you will see...nothing."

For a better chance of viewing the flyby, check out Slooh Space Camera, which is live streaming the space rock from an observatory beginning at 5:30 p.m., according to National Geographic.

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