How to watch asteroid LIVE heading for Earth that NASA dubbed 'potentially hazardous'

According to NASA, this giant asteroid which is almost twice the size of Burj Khalifa is heading for Earth; Here is how to watch it LIVE and when to do so

NASA has dubbed this 1.3KM wide asteroid headed for Earth ‘potentially hazardous’, check out details and how to watch it and when (Pixabay)

A humongous asteroid which is 4000 feet or 1.3KM wide is headed towards Earth. The asteroid has been classified as ‘potentially hazardous' by NASA due to its likely proximity to Earth. The asteroid, named, 138971 (2001 CB21), is almost twice the size of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. According to Spacereference.org, the asteroid will fly past our home planet on March 4, 2022 at about 3 AM ET or 1:30 PM IST. The asteroid will fly past Earth at a distance of 3 million miles at an amazing speed of 26,800 miles per hour. According to NASA, any fast moving celestial object that comes within 4.5 million miles radius is considered a potentially hazardous object. However, in all likelihood, the asteroid should make a safe passage away from Earth, according to NASA. However, this does present an exciting opportunity for astronomy enthusiasts to watch the asteroid live as it passes by. If you want to watch this asteroid live, read on to find out how.

Earlier, on January 30, an image of the 2001 CB21 was captured via an Earth-based telescope by Gianluca Masi, an astronomer at the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy. At that time, it was more than 21.5 million miles away from Earth. The asteroid revolves around the sun once every 384 days, which is almost similar to Earth's own orbital period. Its large size makes it bigger than around 97 percent of known asteroids.

How to watch asteroid live

The asteroid will be making its way towards the Earth on March 4, at around 1:30 PM IST (it is subject to change). Space enthusiasts can watch this giant asteroid 2001 CB21 in two ways.

First, visit the website of The Virtual Telescope project 2.0 by clicking on this link here. The website will begin its live streaming from 8:30 AM on March 4. Second, you can also observe the asteroid at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Small-Body Database Lookup website. You can visit it by clicking on this link here.

Make sure you do not miss this event because the next time this asteroid will come this close to Earth will be on March 6, 2043.

Last month, another potentially hazardous asteroid named 1994 PC1 flew past Earth at a distance of around 1.2 million miles. With the rising incidents of asteroids passing close to Earth, NASA is working on asteroid defence projects like the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to prevent humanity from asteroid strike. As the name suggests, a NASA spacecraft will attempt to divert an asteroid from its course deep in space.