Asteroid 2012 BX34: Bus-Sized Asteroid To Pass by Earth Today

Don’t look now, but we’re going to have a pretty close shave in about an hour.

Asteroid 2012 BX34 will be blowing past Earth today, but it doesn’t pose much of a threat despite the fact that it will be closer than our moon.

The newly-discovered asteroid, which is about the size of a bus, will pass within 36,750 miles of Earth at about 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) this morning, astronomers with NASA‘s Asteroid Watch program announced via Twitter.

The asteroid is about 36 feet long, making it too small to pose a significant threat to Earth.

“It wouldn’t get through our atmosphere intact even if it dared to try,” Asteroid Watch scientists tweeted today.

Asteroid 2012 BX34 will pass by at a distance about 0.17 times that separating the Earth and the moon. The moon orbits Earth at an average distance of about 240,000 miles.

If you’re in the right place with the right equipment, this little space rock could put on quite a show.

“Advanced amateur astronomers might be able to observe the flyby as the asteroid brightens to 14th magnitude just before closest approach on Friday,” Spaceweather.com reported today.

For comparison’s sake, a full moon has a magnitude of about -12.75. A magnitude of +14 would make 2012 BX34 roughly equivalent to the maximum brightness of the dwarf planet Pluto.

So keep your eyes open, and you just might catch a glimpse of history.

Check out just how close 2012 BX34 will come below.

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