Asteroid will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. Don't worry: there is no chance of it hitting us as it will pass at seven times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
It won't cross our path again until 2032, but it will be a much farther encounter 45 million miles away. On Friday, three much smaller asteroids, no more than tens of yards in diameter, will collide with our planet. The harmless flyby is one of several encounters this week.