A huge asteroid, measuring nearly 3 miles across, will miss Earth by a mere whisker, in cosmic terms.
Asteroid 3122, named Florence, will zoom past Earth at just 4.4 million miles. It will be so close that skywatchers will be able to see it easily through a telescope over the next few nights. Florence will be visible as a ninth-magnitude object in the night sky.
The last time Florence flew so close to us was way back in 1890, and won’t be so near again until 2500.