DX110 Asteroid Flyby Poses No Threat to Earth (VIDEO)

Mar 05, 2014 05:20 PM EST | Matt Mercuro

A 98-foot asteroid is flying by within 217,000 miles of Earth, which is closer than the moon is to our planet, according to the Associated Press.

The massive asteroid was closest to our planet at approximately 4 p.m. EST, according to NASA.

"This asteroid, 2014 DX110, is estimated to be about 100 feet across," officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California wrote in an alert. "Its closest approach to Earth will be at about 217,000 miles from Earth at about 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST) on March 5."

The moon is approximately 238,000 miles away from Earth.

NASA confirmed before the flyby that DX110 would pose "no threat" to Earth.

Asteroid 2014 DX110 was discovered on Feb. 28 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.

The telescope is one of many devices located around the globe looking for and tracking near-Earth objects.

NASA said the asteroid is traveling as speeds of over 32,000 mph.

"NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets using both ground- and space-based telescopes," JPL officials said in a statement, according to Space.com. "The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called 'Spaceguard,' discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their close approaches to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet."

The Virtual Telescope Project in Italy and the Slooh observatory both offered free streaming of the flyby so viewers around the world could watch.

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