An Enormous Asteroid Passing By Earth Today And NASA Just Found Out About It

NASA/JPL-CaltechWhen NASA first found out about the so-called "Beast" asteroid zipping along near earth they thought it could be as big as a mile wide. That was April 23, 2014.

Today is the day this monstrosity is whizzing past our planet. And even though there's no chance it will hit us, it will get relatively close.

"Beast" is only a little over 3 times the distance to the moon today at its closest point. That's just 777,000 miles.

And at its fastest, the asteroid is rocketing through space at 31,000 mph. That was expected to be just before 2 am today.

The asteroid, officially named 2014 HQ124, is really big. Astronomers have revised it down to about 1,100 feet wide. That's a little more than the size of three football fields.

According to Space.com scientists think they've found about 95% of asteroids so big they could wipe us all out. But they also acknowledge that there are plenty more out there that could be dangerous if they get in our way.