Huge, mile-wide asteroid to pass by Earth Wednesday

A massive asteroid will be zooming past Earth this week.

Known as 1998 OR2, the asteroid is a mile wide and will be about 3.9 million miles away from our planet Wednesday, the BBC reported.

Technically, the asteroid is called a potentially hazardous object, or PHO, because of its size and the fact that it will be within five million miles of Earth's orbit, but it really does not pose a threat, experts told the BBC.

It will be about 16 times farther away from the Earth than the moon is, according to Space.com.

The asteroid will be at the closest point Wednesday at 5:56 a.m. and you may be able to see it with smaller telescopes, EarthSky reported.

There will also be an online viewing thanks to the Virtual Telescope Project based in Rome.

If you want to see it with your own telescope, EarthSky has the specifications that will give you the clearest view.

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