The largest asteroid ever known to pass near Earth was flying by the planet today as professional and backyard astronomers kept a keen eye.
The flyby was captured on video by Gianluca Masi, Franco Mallia and Roger Wilcox, as part of an educational project.
Asteroid Toutatis is about 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide (4.6 by 2.4 kilometers). Early this morning it was within a million miles of Earth, or about four times the distance to the Moon.
No space rock this big will pass so close in the next century, scientists say. And while similarly large asteroids have hit the planet in the distant past, none so big have come so close since astronomers have had the means to notice them. Many smaller space rocks have been spotted much closer, even inside the orbit of the Moon.
NASA scientists and other asteroid experts have been watching Toutatis for more than a decade, and though its orbit changes slightly with each 4-year trip around the Sun, they have a good handle on the path.
While some rumors have suggested the asteroid's forecasted course might be off by enough to cause a collision with Earth, Sherrod agrees with Harris and other scientists that there is no chance for calamity. Sherrod has been monitoring Toutatis' movement since July 3, logging more than 500 observations that allow mapping of a precise trajectory.
"Although the actual path of it has indeed varied a slight bit from the original calculated, there is absolutely no chance of a physical encounter or impact with Earth," he said.
So where are Ben and Bruce when you need them?
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