Another asteroid is scheduled to fly past Earth just days after one just flew past us here on the third rock from the sun. The size of a football field, it should zoom past our planet on Saturday (March 9).
Astronomers have labeled the space rock asteroid 2013 ET and it's reported to be no threat, missing Earth by 600,000 miles. This is the second asteroid to pass nearby our planet this month.
Asteroid 2013 EC, the 33-foot asteroid that passed by Monday (March 4) missed us by 230,000 miles.
As NBC News reports, researchers say that, just like 2013 EC, 2013 ET poses no threat to the Earth. There are over one million space rocks flying through the galaxy undetected. Out of that huge estimated number, a mere 9,700 have been discovered to date. It's a little unsettling that the space rocks were discovered just a few days before their flybys. As we witnessed from the meteor explosion that happened over Russia in last month, it's possible for undetected objects to strike Earth without warning. The 55-foot fireball hailed down on Russia on Feb. 15 although astronomers had no idea it existed.
Don't panic: scientists are working to tighten up on their asteroid-detection efforts and don't expect that humans will become extinct anytime in the near future. The orbits of 95 percent of larger, threatening asteroids in close proximity to Earth have already been mapped and their collision courses show that they will not hit us. If it makes you feel better, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was about 6 miles across and the 980 asteroids mapped are just 0.6 miles wide.
Asteroid 2013 ET will be too small for stargazing fanatics to see with the naked eye, so a live Webcast will be held for those who wish to check out the event.
Beginning on Friday (March 8) starting at 2 p.m. EST, you can watch the live event for free, courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy and run by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi. To access the live broadcast, check out Virtual Telescope's WebTV.
