Large asteroid approaching Earth

One of the largest asteroids of the year will pass by Earth on Thursday, at a distance slightly greater than the diameter of the Moon’s orbit, according to the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Scientists added that the asteroid has an average diameter of 166 meters and a length of 290 meters. Its mass is roughly 1,000 times greater than that of the meteorite that fell in Chelyabinsk, RIA Novosti reports.