Asteroid Will Give Earth a Close Shave on February 15

Prep­pers, it’s almost the big day you’ve been wait­ing for — the apoc­a­lypse and armaged­don all rolled into one. Almost, but not quite. Accord­ing to NASA, “an aster­oid about half the size of a foot­ball field will fly past Earth only 17,200 miles above our plan­et’s sur­face.” “This [will be] a record-set­ting close approach,” says Don Yeo­mans of NASA’s Near Earth Object Pro­gram at The Jet Propul­sion Lab­o­ra­to­ry. “Since reg­u­lar sky sur­veys began in the 1990s, we’ve nev­er seen an object this big get so close to Earth.” It’ll be a close call and that’s all. So, prep­pers, keep your com­pass­es, iodine pills and dehy­drat­ed lentils packed and ready for anoth­er day. You’ll get your chance.