A GIGANTIC asteroid is making its way towards Earth and Nasa has labelled it as “potentially hazardous.”
The US space agency expects the large space rock to shoot past us tomorrow at a “close” distance and you should be able to watch it live.
Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) is said to be up to 4,265 feet wide.
That makes it almost three times as big as the Empire State Building, but the good news is, it’s not expected to hit Earth.
Space fans should be able to watch the asteroid as it shoots past Earth thanks to the The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0.
The live feed will start at 10pm ET on March 4 (3am GMT March 5).
You can also track Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) virtually at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Small-Body Database Lookup website.
Read our Asteroid 138971 live blog for the latest news and updates…
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What is a NEO?
Nasa considers anything passing near Earth’s orbit a Near-Earth Object (NEO).
Thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet.
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How close will the asteroid get?
Asteroid 138971 should shoot past us on March 4 from an estimated distance of 3million miles away.
A few million miles might sound pretty far away, but it’s actually quite close in terms of space.
By comparison, the Moon is only about 238,900 miles from Earth.
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Will the asteroid hit Earth?
The good news is, Asteroid 138971 is not expected to hit Earth.
An asteroid of this size would do some serious damage to the planet.
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Empire State asteroid
Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) is said to be up to 4,265 feet wide, making it almost three times as big as the Empire State Building.
The Empire State Building stands at around 1,453 feet tall, so it would pale in comparison to Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21).
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Passing ‘close’ to Earth
Asteroid 138971 is making its way towards Earth and Nasa has labeled it as “potentially hazardous.”
The US space agency expects the large space rock to shoot past us at a “close” distance.
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Tracking the asteroid
You can also track Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) virtually at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Small-Body Database Lookup website.
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How to watch
Space fans should be able to watch the asteroid as it shoots past Earth thanks to the The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0.
The live feed will start at 10pm ET on March 4 (3am GMT March 5).
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How big is the asteroid?
Asteroid 138971 (2001 CB21) is said to be up to 4,265 feet wide.
