Giant Asteroid to Fly by Earth Today

The cosmos spare humanity – not that we really earned it or anything.

This afternoon, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will fly by Earth in the closest encounter with an asteroid that big in more than 30 years. Asteroid 2005 YU55 will come within 323,000 kilometres of our fair planet – closer than the moon is to Earth, but still far enough away that you won't be able to see the 1,300-foot chunk of rock with the naked eye. Astronomers are using this close call to beam microwaves to the asteroid's surface to see just what it's made up of. After all, it's widely believed that the building blocks for life on Earth could have come from an asteroid. Should 2005 YU55 be carrying water or organic compounds, the asteroid could greatly improve our understanding of the heavenly bodies' role in our solar system. The last time an asteroid was this close to Earth, it was 1976, and NASA had no idea that the rock was even close to the planet. And while this one won't hit Earth, if it did, the force would be powerful enough to wipe out a major city and obliterate everything within a 100-kilometre radius.