A big asteroid will fly by Earth Wednesday, but don't panic. It won't hit us

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico captured this radar image of the big asteroid 1998 OR2 on April 17, 2020. The asteroid will fly by Earth at a distance of 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers) on April 29.

(Image: © Arecibo Observatory)

Don't be fooled by any hyped-up headlines you may have read: This week's asteroid flyby poses no threat to Earth or anything on it

The big asteroid 1998 OR2 will zoom within 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers) of our planet early Wednesday morning (April 29). While that's a close shave in the context of the visible universe, which is more than 90 billion light-years wide, there's zero chance that the space rock will hit Earth on this pass, scientists stress.

Indeed, at its closest approach, the roughly 1.5-mile-wide (2.4 km) 1998 OR2 will still be about 16 times farther from us than the moon is from the Earth. (The moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 239,000 miles, or 385,000 km.)

Video: Asteroid 1998 OR2's April 29, 2020 Earth flyby explained
Related: Potentially dangerous asteroids )teroid 1998 OR2 will safely fly by Earth - NASA explains

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