An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday.

Don’t worry: There’s no chance of it hitting us since it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon.

NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies estimates the space rock is between 690 feet and 1,575 feet (210 meters and 480 meters) across. That means the asteroid could be similar in size to New York City’s Empire State Building or Chicago’s Willis Tower.

Discovered in 2008, the asteroid is designated as 2008 OS7. It won’t be back our way again until 2032, but it will be a much more distant encounter, staying 45 million miles (72 million kilometers) away.

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    9 months ago

    Saw this story earlier but the headline said “1.7m miles” and I somehow didn’t notice the first “m”. I was somewhat perturbed.