Family Life

02.15.13 | Sarah Harnisch

A 150 foot-wide asteroid will complete a remarkably close, but safe, flyby. For weeks, scientists have been tracking the path of the small near-Earth asteroid known as 2012 DA14, which is on course to swing by the Earth today at 2:24 p.m.

Again, no need to panic about a collision with Earth, which would be, in a word, catastrophic. If a space rock of this magnitude crashed into us, scientists say, it would release about 2.5 megatons of energy into the atmosphere. The last time an asteroid this size smacked into the Earth was in 1908 in Tuguska, Siberia. That rock, which actually was a bit smaller than 2012 DA14, took out about 750 square miles of forest near what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.

Still, the uniqueness of this flyby promises to be a major news event as 2012 DA14 will pass inside the band of weather and communications satellites which orbit the Earth, some 22,200 miles above the planet's surface. At its closest point, the flyby will get as close as 17,150 miles above the Earth and constitute the closest approach for a known object of this size.

To watch it live on NASA's website, go here.

Note-- if it takes a long time to load, there may be too many people watching it at the same time. Keep trying. It will be recorded by NASA-- so you'll also be able to watch it later in the day.