"The Beast" Potentialy Hazardous Asteroid to Fly By Earth Sunday, June 8

Earth is in for a close call this week.  A massive asteroid nicknamed “The Beast” is set to fly by Earth on Sunday, June 8, shortly before 2 a.m. EDT at a distance of three lunar lengths, at least 716,500 miles from Earth. Asteroid 2014 HQ124 was first spotted on April 23rd  by NASA’s WISE

Based on its size and the distance at which it will near Earth, 2014 HQ124 has been classified as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.”

“What’s disconcerting is that a rocky/metallic body this large, and coming so very close, should have only first been discovered this soon before its nearest approach,” astronomer Bob Berman of the Slooh Space Camera said in a statement, according to National Geographic. (The privately run robotic telescope service will broadcast a preview of the flyby Thursday.)

“HQ124 is at least 10 times bigger, and possibly 20 times [bigger], than the asteroid that injured a thousand people last year in Chelyabinsk, Siberia,” Berman continued. “If it were [to] impact us, the energy released would be measured not in kilotons like the atomic bombs that ended World War II, but in H-bomb type megatons.”

‘Beast’ Asteroid To Fly By Earth Sunday, June 8   -
Huffington Post  

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Image credit: AP Photo/NASA – Paul Wiegert