A fast-moving asteroid will make a close flyby of Earth this Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 4), but it poses no risk of hitting our planet, according to NASA.

The asteroid, called 2002 AJ129, will make its closest approach to Earth at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT), and will be about 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers) from our planet at its closest point, NASA officials said. It's traveling at a breathtaking speed of about 76,000 mph (122,310 km/h), faster than most near-Earth asteroids, they added.

But while asteroid 2002 AJ129 is classified as "potentially hazardous" by NASA, at no point now or during the next century does it pose an impact threat to Earth, NASA officials said. Asteroids are classified potentially hazardous if they are larger than 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter and are in orbits that approach within 4.65 million miles (7.48 million km) of Earth. [In Images: Potentially Dangerous Asteroids Tracked by NASA]

"We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, said in the statement. "Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance — zero — of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."

Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will make its closest approach to Earth on Feb. 4, 2018, at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT). At closest approach, the asteroid will be no closer than 10 times the distance between Earth and the moon. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The space rock will be no closer than about 10 times the distance between the Earth and moon. (The average distance between the Earth and moon is about 238,855 miles, or about 384,400 km.)

Asteroid 2002 AJ129 is a mid-size asteroid that is somewhere between 0.3 miles and 0.75 miles (0.5 to 1.2 kilometers) across. It was discovered on Jan. 15, 2002 by astronomers with a then-NASA-sponsored Near Earth Asteroid Tracking project at the Maui Space Surveillance Site on Haleakala, Hawaii.

The asteroid's unusually fast speed was likely caused by a its orbit, which brings 2002 AJ129 extremely close to the sun, whipping around the star at a range of 11 million miles (18 million km), NASA officials said.

You can see live views of asteroid 2002 AJ129 today here at the Virtual Telescope Project website here at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT).

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.</s>The asteroid will miss Earth by 3.7 lunar distances (LD) - the distance between the planet and the Moon. This means asteroid BP6 will come within 883,766 miles of Earth - a relatively small distance in space terms. BP6 has not been deemed a “potentially hazardous asteroid” (PHA) but still measures a fearsome 141 feet in diameter. Asteroid BP6 also has a velocity of 8.5 miles per second - or 30,600 miles per hour.

It is just the latest asteroid to cause alarm among sky-watchers. Yesterday Asteroid 2002 AJ129 sped by Earth just hours before this weekend’s Super Bowl. Asteroid 2002 AJ129 was classed as a PHA by both NASA and the International Astronomers’ Union, a body of PhD-educated astronomers. In a statement, NASA spokesman Paul Chodas said: “We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately. “Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance — zero — of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."

At its closest approach, 2002 AJ129 came within 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon - 2.6 million miles. And last week stargazers saw a spectacular ball of fire blazing across the skies above the Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha regions of Spain when a asteroid entered the atmosphere. Experts from the La Hita astronomical complex and observatory in Toledo said they had detected the fireball and said it was caused by an asteroid bursting into the earth’s atmosphere at a staggering 111,000mph.

Analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo of the University of Huelva, the scientist behind the SMART project, said: “The fireball was produced as a result of the abrupt entry into the earth's atmosphere of a rock coming from an asteroid.” The Astronomical Complex has detailed that the speed of the rock was around 111,000 mph, which led to it becoming incandescent and generating the "spectacular light phenomenon”.</s>ST. GEORGE — This year’s Super Bowl Sunday will have an added bonus likely not on anyone’s list of Super Bowl predictions — a large asteroid making a close flyby on game day.

Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will make a close approach to earth at 2:30 p.m. MST Sunday. At its closest, it will be 2.6 million miles from earth, or 10 times the distance between the Earth and the moon, according to a news report by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“Anything within the orbit of the moon is very close. Twenty times the distance is a no-concern zone, and this one is 10 times the distance of the moon, which is right in the middle of where scientists start worrying,” Mark Shelton of the St. George Astronomy Group told St. George News, “but this one is not on a collision course with Earth.”

Although Asteroid 2002 AJ129 is categorized a “potentially hazardous asteroid,” a classification given to any asteroid larger than about 460 feet in diameter that comes closer than 4.6 million miles to Earth, it does not pose an actual threat of colliding with the planet on game day, or on any other day in the foreseeable future.

“We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately,” said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at JPL, according to its report. “Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance – zero – of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years.

The asteroid will fly by Earth during this year’s Super Bowl pregame festivities. By kickoff, it will be 134,000 miles farther along on its journey through the solar system.

The asteroid is slightly less than one-half mile across and is moving at 67,000 mph, Shelton said, while a typical asteroid passing through the solar system moves at 57,000 mph. During the flyby, that speed will increase to 76,000 mph at its closest approach to earth, an increase in velocity caused by the asteroid’s orbit that comes within 11 million miles from the sun.

Objects generally move slower in the solar system and speeds increase significantly as objects move through interstellar space.

Although the asteroid is designated as a potentially hazardous, even larger rocks have made relatively close flybys, including Asteroid Florence, an object more than 2 miles across, or four times larger, which passed through at a distance 18 times farther than the distance between the Earth and the moon in September 2017.

In October a bus-size rock passed within 54,000 miles of Earth, and while much smaller than Asteroid 2002 AJ129, it came within the altitude range of communications and GPS satellites rotating around Earth.

Asteroids are made of rock, metals and other elements, and there are millions of them in the solar system, ranging in size from hundreds of miles across to several feet across, according to the University of Arizona.

Even so, if all of the asteroids in the solar system were pulled together, they would fit in the Earth’s moon, with room to spare.

Most asteroids orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt, more than 19 million miles wide between Jupiter and Mars, moving or tumbling erratically in elliptical orbits. Scientists believe more than 150 of these space rocks have a small companion moon, or even two moons.

Many asteroids seem to have been captured by a planet’s gravity and then become moons, including two of Mars’ moons, Phobos and Deimos, along with most of the moons rotating around outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The average surface temperature of a typical asteroid is minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and these chunks of rock have remained basically unchanged for billions of years, allowing scientists a glimpse into the early solar system.</s>Asteroid 2002 AJ129, an intermediate-sized near-Earth asteroid will pass by Earth on Sunday, February 4, 2018.

The asteroid will make its closest approach to the Earth at a distance which is greater than 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. It is predicted to pass by at around 1:30 p.m. PST (4:30 p.m. EST/ 21:30 UTC).

The asteroid is believed to have a size between 0.3 miles or 0.5 kilometers and 0.75 miles or 1.2 kilometers.

However, Astronomers do not have any fears about the flyby. Paul Chodas, the manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, said, "We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately. Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance-zero-of colliding with Earth on Feb.4 or anytime over the next 100 years."

The asteroid will have a velocity of 76,000 mph (34 kilometers per second) at its closest distance. This is higher than the majority of the near-Earth object during their flyby across Earth. The flyby velocity is higher due to the asteroid's orbit which approaches the sun at a distance of 11 million miles or 18 million kilometers.

It was discovered by NASA-sponsored Near Earth Asteroid Tracking project at the Maui Space Surveillance Site on Haleakala, Hawaii on January 15, 2002.

Even though asteroid 2002 AJ129 is categorized as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), it will not form any collision with Earth any soon. JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies makes observations on the asteroids, comets or any other bodies which pass by Earth for the NASA's Near-Earth Object Observation Program.

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office studies the near earth bodies to avoid any potential hazards or collisions with Earth. They also aim to work to tackle such situations warn people and lead any disaster management missions.

Space organizations are also keenly watching NEOs during their close encounters with Earth. One such observation has led to the identification of 'Oumuamua', the first interstellar object to pass through the Solar System near Earth.</s>An asteroid bigger than the world’s tallest building is set to whizz past the Earth at a speed of 76,000 miles per hour (122,000kph) Sunday night.

The space rock, known by the catchy name of ‘2002 AJ129,’ measures up to 0.75 miles (1.2kms) wide. That’s a sight bigger than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building on Earth which stretches around a half a mile into the sky.

Eerie-sounding name aside, there is no immediate cause for alarm. Despite being tagged as “potentially hazardous” by NASA, it is said that the asteroid has zero chance of colliding with us on Earth.

Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will pass within 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kms) of Earth. That’s more than ten times the distance between the moon and our home planet.

It’s not as if NASA haven’t been keeping an eye on the hypersonic rock, either. The space agency has been perhaps as fearful as anyone that it could smash into Earth and send us the way of the dinosaurs. No – scientists have been tracking ‘2002 AJ129’ for the last 14 years.

"We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately," added Paul Chodas from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance – zero – of colliding with Earth on February 4 or any time over the next 100 years."

This is good news us Earthlings. If the giant rock did hit it would cause some serious, long-lasting damage. Research from 2016 estimated that such a strike could cause "a very severe global impact" for several years, even heralding a mini ice age. And if a rock ten times the size of ‘2002 AJ129’ struck the Earth, it would be game over.
As predicted, a ~600 meter asteroid named (276033) 2002 AJ129 makes a close approach to Earth of 0.028 Astronomical units (4.2 million km, 2.6 million mi).