Will fly through Earth's satellite system.
An asteroid half the size of a football field is about to give planet Earth a reality check.
Dubbed 2012 DA-14, the giant rock is bringing with it 2.5 megatons of energy, and will come so close to Earth, it will travel right through our network of weather and communications satellites next Friday night.
The good news says Donald Yeomans at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is that we have plenty of room to spare.
"This asteroid's orbit is so well known that we can say with confidence that even considering its orbital uncertainties, it can pass no closer than 17,100 miles from Earth's surface," Yeomans said during a teleconference call Thursday.
"So no Earth impact is possible," he says.
NASA says there are roughly half a million asteroids this size just floating around Earth, one of which caused that famous crater in Siberia back in 1908.
Hear the podcast with Matt Patrick and Houston's Morning News as he talks with Thaller:
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