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Asteroid the size of a bus will skim past Earth today just days after being spotted

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
It definitely won’t hit us though (Picture Getty)
It definitely won’t hit us though (Picture Getty)

Don’t panic, but an asteroid the size of a bus is to give our planet a very close shave today, flying past 65,000 miles away.

That’s a third of the distance between the Earth and the moon – and very, very close in space terms.

The space rock, 2018 DV1, was only spotted on Monday by one of the world’s most powerful telescopes, and is believed to be between 20 and 40 feet wide.

It will make its pass at 5pm GMT today.

This NASA graphic shows the orbit of asteroid 2018 DV1 in relation to Earth. The asteroid will fly within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of Earth on March 2, 2018.
This NASA graphic shows the orbit of asteroid 2018 DV1 in relation to Earth. The asteroid will fly within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of Earth on March 2, 2018.

Astronomers have said that it’s completely safe, and that there’s no chance it will hit Earth.

Small asteroids fly past Earth all the time, experts have said – we have just got better at detecting them.

This is thought to be the 18th asteroid to fly past Earth this year.

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You can watch the pass live on the Virtual Telescope project online with a stream hosted here when it passes Earth today.

Virtual Telescope Project says, ‘Next 2 Mar. 2018, the near-Earth Asteroid 2018 DV1 will have a very close, but safe, encounter with us. The Virtual Telescope Project and Tenagra Observatories will show it to you live.’