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Asteroid dubbed 'God of Chaos' to fly past earth tonight - here's how you can see it

The asteroid will be visible to some telescopes (stock images). Picture: Getty

By Polly Foreman

Apophis looks set to fly within 10,471,577 miles of earth shortly after 1am on Saturday.

An asteroid dubbed the 'God of Chaos' will hurtle past earth in the early hours of Saturday morning.

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You don't need to panic, though, as there's no chance of any sort of contact with earth - it will be some 10,471,577 miles away, more than 43 times further than the moon.

Apophis, which measures around 350 metres in diameter, is set to fly past us shortly after 1am on Saturday morning (6 March), and will be visible to some telescopes.

The asteroid is set to fly past the earth at 1am tonight (stock image). Picture: Getty

People who wish to see the asteroid can either use their own telescopes, or watch using a live feed at the Virtual Telescope Project, as reported by Fox News.

The asteroid was first discovered in 2004, and NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California has been observing the asteroid since March 3 of this year.

They will continue to watch it until March 14.

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The asteroid will be visible to some telescopes this evening (stock image). Picture: Getty

Apophis is set to pass earth again in April 2029, at which time it will apparently be closer to our surface.

Speaking about this future fly-by, NASA said: "This will be the closest approach by something this large currently known.

"Apophis will be visible to the naked eye for several hours, and Earth tides will probably change its spin state."

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Martina Birk

Update: 2024-09-09