An asteroid is set to pass by the Earth Thursday morning, kicking off a full month of astronomical events.
NASA said Near Earth Object 2019 AE3 is expected to get about 1 million miles from Earth (between 4 and 5.7 lunar distances). It's between 32 and 71 feet in size and traveling at 18,400 miles per hour.
The pass-by begins at 9 a.m., but as of 8 a.m. in Tampa, the space rock was about to be above the horizon.
AE3 isn't the only object expected to come close to Earth. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the next five asteroid approaches within 4.6 million miles are happening Thursday and Saturday.
Two of the space rocks, including AE3, are about the size of a city bus, two are about the size of a house and one is nearly the size of a skyscraper.
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