An asteroid estimated to be 1.2 miles wide, and will fly to Earth early Wednesday morning, but it is not expected to hit our planet .

The asteroid is called 52768 (1998 OR2), and it was first spotted in 1998. On April 29, it will pass within 3,908,791 miles of Earth, moving at 19,461 miles per hour. That's still 16 times farther than the distance between Earth and the moon .

The flyby is expected to occur at 5:56 a.m. ET, according to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. The center tracks Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs, that could collide with Earth. They have been tracking this particular asteroid for 20 years, according to NASA .

You can watch it live on The Virtual Telescope's website. Gianluca Masi, founder and scientific director of The Virtual Telescope in Italy, has been tracking and imaging it for some time .

If it did impact Earth, the asteroid is "large enough to cause global effects," according to NASA, back when the asteroid was first discovered .

And if an asteroid could be aware of such things, it appears to be wearing a face mask in deference to the pandemic, according to new images from Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

"The small-scale topographic features such as hills and ridges on one end of asteroid 1998 OR2 are fascinating scientifically," said Anne Virkki, head of planetary radar at Arecibo Observatory, in a statement. "But since we are all thinking about Covid-19, these features make it look like 1998 OR2 remembered to wear a mask."

You can watch it live on The Virtual Telescope's website. Gianluca Masi, founder and scientific director of The Virtual Telescope in Italy, has been tracking and imaging it for some time.


Asteroid