“Potentially hazardous asteroid” to pass by Earth tonight

In case you’re not interested in watching the Bears whoop Green Bay tonight, there’s a possibly more spectacular show taking place in the sky.

PHA 2012 QG42 (the PGA means potentially hazardous asteroid) is expected to pass within 1.8 million miles us, which is, relatively speaking, pretty darn close.

The hunk of rock is anywhere from 625 to 1,400 feet across – that’s as wide as a 14 story building is tall.

You won’t be able to see much from your backyard, even with a telescope, but you can catch the action in real time on Slooh.com.

And don’t worry, PHA 2012 QG42 won’t hit us this time around. But that doesn’t mean it won’t in the distant future; remember, unlike smaller meteors, asteroids are on a designated orbit and tend to pass by the same planets more than once.

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