3-Mile-Wide Asteroid To Buzz Earth; Watch 3 PM EST Toutatis Live Stream
While many fear the supposed end of the world on Dec. 21, a giant asteroid is approaching planet Earth.
The massive 3-mile-wide asteroid called 4179 Toutatis will buzz past Earth on Dec. 12.
Scientists say there is nothing to fear as the near-Earth asteroid will only make a flyby within 4.3 million miles of the planet. At that distance, it is too far to be a threat to mankind, but should offer a stellar show as it goes by.
A free online live stream will be available through the Slooh Space Camera and Virtual Telescope Project.
The stream will feature commentary from the project's president Patrick Paolucci as well as Bob Berman, columnist for Astronomy Magazine.
Berman released a statement on the asteroid show, as reported by Fox News: "Slooh technical staff will let the public follow this fast-moving asteroid in two different ways. In one view, the background stars will be tracked at their own rate and the asteroid will appear as an obvious streak or a moving time-lapse dot across the starry field. In a second view, Toutatis itself will be tracked and held steady as a tiny pointlike object, while Earth's spin makes the background stars whiz by as streaks. Both methods will make the asteroid's speedy orbital motion obvious as it passes us in space."
The 4.3 million mile flyby of the meteor can be compared to the distance the moon orbits from Earth at around 240,000 mile.
The asteroid may pass Earth again on another round in the future and if it ever did hit the planet, it would cause massive damage, according to Space.com. The asteroid that destroyed the dinosuars when it hit Earth 65 million years ago was around 6-miles-wide.
The Toutatis webcast will start at 3 p.m. EST and viewers can watch the live stream here.
