Space Rock To Fly By Earth Thursday Night

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's actually a "potentially hazardous" asteroid the size of a city block.

On Thursday night,  the near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1 may be coming close enough  to be possibly be seen on live camera.

Although the huge rock will come close enough to be seen on camera it poses no threat during its passing.

Astronomers believe it is about 1,620 feet wide (500 meters) wide.

2012 LZ1 came was sighted on June 10 by Rob McNaught and his colleagues, according to the Huffington Post. The team was peering through the Uppsala Scmidt telescope at Siding Pring Observatory in Australia when the huge rock came into view.

The asteroid will come within about 3.35 million miles of our planet, or nearly 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

Due to the size of this space rock and the proximity to Earth, 2012 LZ1 qualifies as a potentially hazardous asteroid. Near-Earth asteroids generally have to be at least 500 feet wide and come within 4.65 million miles of our planet.

A space rock this size hasn't come so close to Earth since 1976, researchers said.

You can watch the asteroid flyby here.