After a meteorite crashed into Russia early this morning, you may have thought we'd reached our terrifying, Deep Impact-esque space shit quota for the week. Well, you'd be wrong because an asteroid is set to bypass the Earth today.
NASA assures us the asteroid, which weighs 130,000 metric tons and measures 150 feet across, will not make Contact with Earth. It will, however, get as close as 17,200 miles from the planet. This means it will blast through a ring of communications satellites orbiting 22,300 miles away. So will the asteroid hit one and take down our cell reception or television signal? Unlikely, say the experts.
"Scientists have determined that it is very unlikely — but not impossible — that television signals, any other form of communication, or any weather data will be impacted by the asteroid," CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said.
Just in case this is the sort of thing you're into, NASA has set up a livestream to watch as space taunts us with near destruction, just because it can. It is supposed to be at its nearest at 2:00 p.m. EST.
[Image via AP]