A giant asteroid called 3200 Phaethon will come within terrifying proximity of our planet just a week before Christmas, on December 17, with scientists saying the vast space rock should be relatively easy to spot, according to Russian astronomers.
The asteroid is believed to cause a spectacular meteor shower, which can be seen between December 13 and 14, metro.co.uk wrote.
For their part, NASA astronomers stated that since they started studying near-Earth objects, this is the first time when an asteroid of this size has approached our planet so close.
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The "encounter with the Earth" will give scientists an excellent opportunity to closer analyze the asteroid with the help of ground-based radars.