Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Flies by Earth
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Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A 1,650-foot wide asteroid passed right by Earth Thursday night, and a bevy of astronomers watched it live via an online streaming camera.
The asteroid, known as 2012 LZ1 is roughly the size of a city block, big enough to cause significant damage if it were to crash into the Earth, but not big enough to cause an extinction level event.
Fortunately for the planet, the 2012 LZ1 is what is known as a Near-Earth Asteroid. It came close to the Earth, within 14 lunar distances or 3,343,970 miles, but it will not hit us.
The asteroid, which has been labeled as potentially hazardous due to its size and proximity to Earth, was discovered by researcher Rob McNaught and his colleagues who were working in their Australian lab on the night of June 10, 2012, when they spotted the asteroid.
McNaught was featured in the live stream broadcast Thursday night.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio