Check out this new video on Space on MSNBC.com of giant asteroid 4179 Toutatis as it barreled through space on its flyby of Earth earlier this week according to NASA.
The asteroid Toutatis video, only about40 seconds long, combines 64 radar images taken Wednesday and Thursday by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. On those days, Toutatis was about 4.3 million miles (7 million kilometers) from Earth, or about 18 times farther away than the moon is, NASA reported
The video shows how Toutatis moves: The asteroid spins about its long axis every 5.4 days and wobbles through space like a badly thrown football, scientists said, Nasa says.
Don't worry though, NASA also says, "Toutatis never posed a threat to Earth on its recent flyby, and researchers say there is no chance it will hit our planet over the next four centuries or so. (Beyond that time, the asteroid's orbit cannot be accurately computed.)"
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