LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
The heavens will be busy tonight and tomorrow. NASA is expecting several interplanetary visitors to Earth's outer space neighborhood. The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies is keeping a close eye on five asteroids heading our way. So we should probably get to know them a little bit, yeah?
The biggest one is Asteroid 2020 WG. It's nearly the size of a skyscraper. It will probably make its closest approach at around 2 million miles away. Asteroid 2024 UQ1, however, is smaller but perhaps more daring. It's about the size of a bus and should come within about 148,000 miles of earth, which is a lot closer than our nearest space neighbor, the moon. But it's still not exactly the most convenient place for a bus stop. And just to be clear, all of these asteroids are expected to pass safely by the Earth and provide scientists with an opportunity to study them as they fly by. And now, as for whether we will get to see them, probably not unless you have a really big telescope and a dark sky. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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