Starting Tonight A Series Of Big Asteroids Will Pass Past Earth
Apophis will be roughly 44 times as far away as the moon during tonight’s considerably less spectacular flyby. The asteroid will be more than 10.2 million miles (16.4 million kilometers) from Earth during its closest approach. The large asteroid Apophis will safely pass by Earth tonight (October 16), and at least two astronomy broadcast organizations are planning live webcasts of the flyby. While personal telescopes with a diameter of fewer than 12 inches may struggle to view Apophis on Friday, the Slooh internet observatory and the Virtual Telescope Project are planning separate webcasts....