Asteroid 2000 EM26 Live Stream: Passing by Earth on February 17, 2014

Asteroid 2000 EM26 Live Stream: Passing by Earth on February 17, 2014
NASA said a "potentially hazardous asteroid" is on a “close approach” near Earth (NASA)
Zachary Stieber
2/17/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

2000 EM26, a potentially hazardous asteroid, is passing by Earth at 9 p.m. ET on Monday. 

The asteroid is traveling at about 27,000 miles per hour and is about 885 feet in diameter.

At its closest projected point to Earth, the asteroid will fly by at about 8.8 lunar distances (2.1 million miles).

“We continue to discover these potentially hazardous asteroids — sometimes only days before they make their close approaches to Earth,” Slooh’s technical and research director, Paul Cox said in a statement. “Slooh’s asteroid research campaign is gathering momentum with Slooh members using the Slooh robotic telescopes to monitor this huge population of potentially hazardous space rocks. We need to find them before they find us!”

Almost a year ago, two nearby asteroids were tracked by researchers. One passed close to Earth while the other exploded above Russia, damaging buildings and injuring more than 1,000 people.

The asteroid exploded 18 miles above the ground and released the energy equivalent of about 20 atomic bombs.