150-ft wide asteroid to miss Earth by 17K miles

Posted:

(NBC NEWS) - An asteroid 150 feet wide will come closer to Earth than any other known asteroid of its size.

But NASA says we don't have to worry. Asteroid 2012DA14 will pass by Earth next Friday at 17,400 mph.

It'll pass 17,200 miles over our rooftops, 5,000 miles closer than satellites we use every day for television and other communications.

Astronomers first spotted the asteroid a year ago as a tiny dot in a star field. Since then, they've tracked it carefully and measured its exact size, leading them to this reassuring conclusion:

"It cannot hit Earth," said Don Yeomans, with NASA.

Read more: http://bit.ly/11uHOlK

All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WGEM. All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Persons with disabilities who need assistance with issues relating to the content of this station's public inspection file should contact Administrative Assistant Donna Vancil at 217-228-6617. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, at 888-835-5322 (TTY) or at fccinfo@fcc.gov.