[Updated at 2:56 p.m. ET] And, there it went.
The asteroid 2012 DA14 has made its closest approach to Earth at 2:24 p.m. ET, at a distance of about 17,200 miles above the planet's surface, NASA says.
[Posted at 1:16 p.m. ET] Scientists say you don't have to worry about asteroid 2012 DA14 hitting Earth. But if you'd like to keep an eye on it as it makes an exceptionally close pass this afternoon, NASA has a camera for you.
The asteroid, thought to be 45 meters long - about half a football field - will come to is closest point to Earth at 2:24 p.m.come no closer than 17,100 miles from our planet's surface.
NASA has a camera trained on it. Watch it live here, and check out our live blog of the event.Â
A nicely grainy picture. It sort of looks like one of those 3-D magic-eye things.
Clever shout out to James Taylor!
It whizzed by just now so we should be thankful.
That's the biggest rock I ever didn't see.
Lol @Rawr! My sentiments exactly!
You're a pain in the asteroid.
The Russion one is a meteorite. This is a asteroid.
*Russian
no....rush on
Like throwing rocks down a gravity well. If you could detonate a superfast rock like that at the right speed and alt..itude....it would make a conventional ballistic weapon with kiloton-blast effects. No nuclear stuff needed.
I should add that this sort of crash-landing capability is similar to flying an airplane into a building, and an overwhelming argument in favor of denying space-flight to pretty much anyone in self-defense. Funny how slow we've been to develop into a space-oriented culture, hmm?
Lol @ banasys "pain in the asteroid"! I love that!
Umm @ CNN thanks for the WHOOPS message and for booting me off line. You said to drop you a note on your System Failure so here it is.
how is is it you can see (barely) the asteroid but missed the glaring meteorite whizzing by to hit russian???
Asteroids. Is that what astronauts get from sitting on the cold ground ?
New Quirky News just in: A Times Square Spider~Man claims he was attacked by a snowball~flinging mom, so he punched her. This would never happen to Superman!
And btw superman says hi to all his homies.