Large Asteroid Approaching Earth

An asteroid bigger than the White House is headed this way.  But don’t panic!  NASA scientists say the giant space rock will miss the Earth by at least 17,000 miles.

Still, the asteroid—estimated to be 150 feet in diameter—will pass by our planet inside the orbit of some high-flying communications satellites.

Donald Yeomans, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says it will be the nearest known flyby for a rock of this size.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will zip by next Friday, February 15 faster than a speeding bullet—about 8 times faster actually.

"Space rocks hit the Earth's atmosphere on a daily basis,” Yeomans said. “Basketball-size objects come in daily. Volkswagen-size objects come in every couple of weeks."

If it were to hit Earth — and it won't— it would release the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wipe out 750 square miles. That's what happened in Siberia in June 1908, when a similar sized asteroid exploded about five miles above ground and flatted about 80 million trees.

The likelihood of something this size striking Earth is once in every 1,200 years. So, that's comforting.