Asteroid Will Be Closer Than Moon During Wednesday Fly-By

DX110 will be close, relative to other asteroids, but still 217,000 miles away and no threat to Earth

An asteroid headed for Earth's general neighborhood will be closer than the moon Wednesday when it passes -- an estimated 217,000 miles away.

The space rock, called 2014 DX110, is estimated at about 45 to 130 feet wide -- less than the width of a football field, but at least as big as the asteroid that injured hundreds of people when it broke apart above Russia last year. DX110 will be about ninth-tenths of the distance between the moon and Earth and might be visible .

Relatively close approaches like this occur frequently, but DX110 is closer than most asteroids. A much larger asteroid, 2014 CU13, is expected to pass Tuesday within eight lunar distances -- the distance from Earth to the moon, which ranges by tens of thousands of miles over the course of the moon's orbit but averages about 238,900 miles.
 

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