Asteroid set to come closer to the Earth than the moon Nov. 8

The Moon is much larger and much farther away from the Earth than you are probably imagining when you hear this.<p>Still cool, though.

Am I the only one who read the article hoping for a "If it DID hit the earth, X would happen..."?

Brace yourselves: the doomsday articles/memes/stories are coming..<p>PS will it be visible to naked eye? if yes then when and where and for how long and where in the sky? can there be a real time Google earth 3d simulation like NASA did for space shuttle launch?

Hmm, the Mayans did quite a good job. They only guessed wrong by 324,600 kilometers and 53 days.

Anyone know how fast it is going relative to the earth? And I'd love to get an answer to wether it will be visible.

Would be interesting if during the flyby our analysis revealed that it was made up of a Gold core or something :). Suddenly NASA might get a bunch of funding to prepare for the next flyby

Anyone have a recommendation for a kick ass telescope that could see this thing? Best bang for the buck kinda deal.

I'd guess that roughly 50% of asteroids passing by end up closer to the earth than the moon.

Isn't about half the universe closer to the Earth than to the moon (at a particular time)?<p>Meaning: stand on a point of the Earth such that the moon is situated exactly above the opposite side of the Earth. Then look up. All that stuff you see is closer to the Earth than the moon.

Let's hope it has enough velocity to escape Earth's field and carry on. I'm sure it does, but I'll keep my fingers crossed, just in case.