NASA is live streaming the event as seen from several observatories

Feb 14, 2013 20:21 GMT  ·  By

A relatively large asteroid is set to come very close to Earth, in astronomical terms, though it will simply fly by. We're not going the way of the dinosaurs, just yet. But the opportunity is a great one to catch a glimpse of the asteroid up close.

Even a huge asteroid is too small for most people to be able to see, luckily NASA has a live stream of the event prepared.

"The half-hour broadcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will incorporate real-time animation to show the location of the asteroid in relation to Earth, along with live or near real-time views of the asteroid from observatories in Australia, weather permitting," NASA explains.

The asteroid will be closest to Earth at 11:25 a.m. PST (2:25 p.m. EST / 19:25 UTC), when it will be 27,600 kilometers or 17,150 miles from our planet, a close cosmic shave as the saying goes.

The stream will start a few hours ahead of that, at 9 a.m. PST, when the asteroid will be visible from observatories in Europe and Australia, as long as the weather holds up. There will be a second feed later in the day as the asteroid passes over the US.