Tonight's Sky Show - Sophia Davison

       Not until 2027 will you see an asteroid as large as the one passing close to earth tonight. "Close", meaning around 745,000 miles away (1.2 million kilometers). Still, this sighting will be an interesting one for those out around 11:19 tonight. This space rock, named '2012 LZ1', is estimated to be one third of a mile wide and has been passing the earth since 8 pm tonight, continuing until around 1 am Tuesday morning. Although not very bright, the asteroid will continue to illuminate as it becomes further from the earth and its surface is lit by the sun. NASA is observing the event and recording the statistics of its speed, size, etc., through radar-generated images hosted by Deep Space Network antennas in Goldstone, California, as well as Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. "While it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more," Don Yeomans, the recently retired manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a NASA news release. Supposedly in 1000 years time, this same asteroid will, in fact, collide with the earth. This creates worry for many scientists, and most who are studying this asteroid sighting are in the process of finding ways to reduce the collision impact upon the earth, or at least are calculating what feasible action can be taken in order to prevent catastrophe. The technology discovered and utilized through these observations is astonishing, causing one to consider the amazing progression of technology throughout our history here on earth.

So many technological advances have been made throughout time, and the telescopes and binoculars, radar imaging equipment, as well as the mapping programs used to calculate predicted times of passing are utilized in today's modern world of astronomy. This has allowed us to even watch the asteroid tonight on a live feed of video. 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/us/asteroid-flyby/index.html