An asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will be passing relatively close to Earth this afternoon. Due to a pass of 3.7 million miles from Earth, 4179 Toutatis is classified as a "potentially hazardous asteroid." Despite a nearly 0% chance of this asteroid colliding with Earth, this is something that NASA will keep an eye on.
Toutatis is a 3 mile wide flying piece of rock and ice moving though space, which happens to be about half the size of the asteroid that struck Earth 65 million years ago that killed off the dinosaurs. Additionally, this is not the only time we have been greeted by Toutatis. Back in 2004, Toutatis zipped by Earth with an approximate distance of 1 million miles. Plus, Toutatis will likely come close to our orbit once every 4 years.
Again, this is nothing that we need to be concerned about, but something to watch. NASA predicts that Earth should not even come close to a collision over the next 600 years. But, its always good to keep an eye on the sky.
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