However, new observations by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile reveal that it will miss our planet by 27,000 miles - roughly one-eighth of the distance to the Moon - which is very close in astronomical terms. (Image credit: Sky & Telescope Magazine diagram)

Astronomers aren't the only ones who can get looks at Florence right now; the asteroid should be visible through backyard telescopes for the next few days. If people are unable to see it, the Virtual Telescope Project will be featuring a live stream of Florence starting on 31 August at 20:30 BST/ 15:30 ET. Although Florence reaches peak brightness (magnitude 8.7) late on Thursday night (August 31st and early on September 1st), it should remain nearly this bright for several days before and afterwards. It was first discovered in Siding Spring observatory in Australia by asteroid hunter Schelte J Bus on the night of 2 March 1981 and orbits the sun once every 859 days. "While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller," stated Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said: “Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began.”

The asteroid, which is an incredible 2.7 miles (4.4 km) in size, last came this close in 1890.
Asteroid 3122 Florence, which is roughly 2.7 miles (4.4 kilometers) wide, comes within 4.4 million miles (7 million km) of Earth — approximately 18 times the distance from our planet to the Moon.