Will Asteroid 2012 TC4 Hit Earth? Live-Stream Footage Of Its Flyby

A house-size asteroid called 2012 TC4 will just miss hitting Earth on Friday, Discovery News reported.

The asteroid will fly past Earth at a distance of 59,000 miles (95,000 kilometers), which doesn’t sound that close. However, 59,000 miles is about one-quarter of the distance between Earth and the moon, so 2012 TC4 is pretty close to hitting the bull's-eye.

"Small asteroid 2012 TC4 will safely pass Earth Oct 12 at just .25 the distance to our moon's orbit," scientists at NASA's Asteroid Watch program said in a Twitter update.

There is no chance it will hit Earth, according to Spaceweather.com, but if it had collided with our planet, what kind of damage could it have caused?

Considering its size, believed to be between 55.77 and 98.43 feet (17 and 30 meters), it wouldn’t do that much damage, depending on its composition, Discovery News reported.

Universe Today noted NASA was to have had telescopes focused on 2012 TC4 as it flew past Earth on Friday at 2 a.m. EDT to determine its size and orbital characteristics through radar measurements.

It was first discovered by Pan-Starrs observatory in Hawaii several days ago, Universe Today wrote.

Asteroid 2012 TC4 could have even been seen by amateur astronomers: "[T]he 16-meter-wide space rock will be close enough to photograph through backyard telescopes as it brightens to approximately 14th magnitude. NASA hopes to ping this this object with radar, refining its orbit and possibly measuring its shape," Spaceweather.com reported.

Check out the discussion and the live stream of asteroid 2012 TC4 through the Slooh Space Camera at Slooh.com.

The asteroid will be in sailing through the stars of Sagittarius, according to Astro Bob.

It will also be in the same field of view as Neptune during Slooh’s live coverage, Universe Today wrote.