Massive Asteroid Will Pass by Earth Today: Watch the Slooh Webcast

An asteroid will make a close flyby of Earth today (April 19), and the Slooh Community Observatory will be tracking the space rock's journey live. 

During the close approach, the asteroid will be traveling at about 73 miles per hour (117 kilometers per hour) and will come to within 4.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon, or about 1.1 million miles (1.6 million km). 

Slooh.com will host a webcast beginning at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) showing live views of asteroid 2014 JO25 on the day of its close pass by Earth. The webcast will also feature Slooh astronomers and other experts, who will discuss how the asteroid was discovered and how humans could stop a massive asteroid from hitting Earth. You can watch the webcast on the Slooh website here. Although the webcast begins at 7 p.m. EDT, the asteroid's closest approach will occur earlier in the day, at about 8:24 a.m. EDT (1224 GMT). Slooh's flagship telescope in Spain's Canary Islands, off the west coast of northern Africa, won't be able to see the asteroid during the day. [Photos: Asteroids in Deep Space] 

You can also watch the webcast on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh. The Slooh webcast will feature one of Slooh's regular webcast hosts, Gerard Monteux, along with Slooh astronomers Paul Cox and Bob Berman, and Aten Engineering founder J. L. Galache. They will discuss the features of asteroid 2014 JO25, how it was discovered and "how we might stop an asteroid of this size should one be discovered on a collision course with Earth," according to the statement.