Asteroid livestream: A 2,133ft rock is about to scrape past Earth – Watch it live here

The asteroid, wider than the One World Trade Centre, is barreling past Earth on a close approach trajectory. Asteroid trackers have dubbed the imposing object Asteroid 2000 QW7. The asteroid will shoot past Earth over the weekend of Saturday, September 14, to Sunday, September, 15. The asteroid will come close enough to our planet to be tracked by telescopes on the night.

How to watch the asteroid’s flyby this weekend?

According to space agency NASA, Asteroid QW7 will make its closest approach to Earth around 12.54am BST on Saturday (11.54pm UTC on Saturday).

Asteroid trackers in the US will see the space rock approach around 7.54pm EDT or 4.54pm PDT.

Courtesy of robotic telescope service Slooh, the flyby will be broadcast live online.

The asteroid live stream will broadcast below and via Slooh’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

READ MORE: How often do asteroids hit Earth? What is the risk of impact?

Slooh offers paid memberships for access to its various telescope features and frequent astronomy-related live streams.

The embedded YouTube live stream above will kick off on Sunday at midnight – 7pm EDT and 4pm PDT on Saturday.

The telescope service said: “Slooh will broadcast live feeds of the asteroid’s closest approach to Earth.

“The event will be hosted by Slooh Astronomer Paul Cox, who will be joined by our team of astronomical experts and guests covering the science of Near-Earth Asteroids and the risk they pose to life on Earth.”

READ MORE: Scientist warns deadly asteroid will hit Earth

Asteroid QW7 is estimated to measure somewhere in the range of 951ft to 2,135ft-wide (290m to 650m) in diameter.

The asteroid is flying through space at a breakneck speed of 6.42km per second or 14,361mph (23,112kph).

NASA believes the rock will miss our planet this weekend by a narrow distance of just 0.03564 astronomical units or 3.3 million miles (5.3 million km).

In astronomical terms, Slooh said the distance is a “mere stone’s throw away”.

READ MORE: Fears of carnage as NASA admits it missed rock hurtling at Earth

Mr Cox said: “This monster Near-Earth Asteroid, unimaginatively dubbed 2000 QW7, is estimated to be up to 650 metres (2,133 ft) in diameter – that’s larger than New York’s One World Trade Center.

“If an object this size were to impact Earth, it would leave more than a scratch – it could wipe out a city and cause regional devastation.

“Yet, just like the dinosaurs, we’re hopelessly ill-prepared for such an event.”

Slooh will track the asteroid tomorrow from observatories in Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and in Chile.

Slooh audiences are traditionally invited to submit questions and cosmic queries via Twitter.

Slooh’s astronomers then try to unravel as many mysteries of the cosmos as possible.

After Asteroid QW7 shoots past Earth, the rock will next visit Earth on October 19, 2038.

After that, the space rock will visit us nine more times until October 8, 2185.

source: express.co.uk