Asteroid Will Race by Earth Today, Coming Closer To Us Than the Moon – And You Can See it Happen Live

An asteroid is on its way to a close encounter with Earth. But scientists have assured us that the asteroid, named 2014 DX110, will not collide and promise that, with a good telescope, it will be a real spectacle to behold. 

The 30 metre long asteroid, which is travelling at around 33,000mph, will be coming within 217,000 miles of Earth.

Last month saw the Slooh website crash due to the popularity of asteroid 2000 EM26 resulting in a surge of visitors to the site.  The site uses a robotic telescope service to stream images.

2014 DX110 is an Apollo class asteroid, meaning an asteroid with an Earth-crossing orbit.

Currently there are 240 known Apollo asteroids, but it is believed that there are at least 2000 with diameters of 1km or larger.

If an Apollo asteroid did hit Earth it would result in a crater about 10-20 times its size. 

An asteroid 1km in size or larger would throw so much dust into the atmosphere that it´s possible that sunlight would be blocked for several years, damaging our planet – and its variety of life – beyond comprehension.

2014 DX110 will be at its closest at 21:07 GMT (16:07 EST).

A live webcast will be available on Slooh and the Virtual Telescope Project.