It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a huge asteroid, and it’s heading towards Earth.
Don’t panic — the asteroid, dubbed 2012 LZ1, will still be more than 3 million miles away when it passes. So unfortunately you’ll still have to go to work tomorrow.
(VIDEO: NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Takes a Virtual Flight over the Asteroid Vesta)
As Space.com reports:
Researchers estimate that the space rock is between 1,000 and 2,300 feet wide (300-700 m). On Thursday evening, it will come within about 3.35 million miles (5.4 million kilometers) of our planet, or roughly 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
You may still be able to watch 2012 LZ1 fly by our planet courtesy of the Slooh Space Camera, an online skywatching service, which will be live-streaming the event starting at 8pm EDT. Here’s the link: http://events.slooh.com/.