Biggest asteroid flyby of the year is Monday: how to watch

A particularly large asteroid will pass near Earth on Monday evening, and the encounter will be broadcast live online. Don’t worry: the overflight will be completely safe and will not pose any risk to anything or anyone on Earth or any of our satellites. But asteroid 2021 EQ3 will move closer to Earth than our only natural satellite.

Surveys from the sky and other telescopes spot a space rock passing closer than the moon every few days, on average. Most of these asteroids are only a few feet in diameter, which probably doesn’t make them bigger than a bus.

However, asteroid 2021 EQ3 could be up to 38 meters (125 feet) in diameter, making it more the size of a small apartment building. It is also roughly the same size as the meteoroid which slammed into the atmosphere over Russia in 2013, creating a shock wave that blew up thousands of windows in the city of Chelyabinsk below, injuring hundreds of people.

2021 EQ3 will pass closest to us at approximately 9:45 p.m. PT on Monday evening, at a distance of approximately 173,000 miles (278,000 kilometers), or 72% of the distance between Earth and the Moon.

You may have seen the headlines on a #asteroid which will fly safely over Earth on March 21. Although this asteroid, known as 2001 FO32, is large, it will safely pass beyond Earth at a distance of 1.3 million miles – five times farther than the Moon – and show no risk of hitting the earth. pic.twitter.com/oZZG5UaFsf

– NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 8, 2021

This makes 2021 EQ3 the second largest object to come close to the moon in 2021.

It’s also different from 2001 FO32, who is an absolute monster with a diameter of about a mile. This asteroid is expected to pass on March 21, but at a distance five times farther away than the moon.

The size of the asteroid also makes it a good object to track, and the Rome-based Virtual Telescope Project will broadcast an evening of online surveillance through its website.

To follow CNET’s 2021 Space Calendar to stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.