Tonight may be your best chance to see asteroid TU24, a giant rock that is definitely not going to smash into Earth.

Despite claims from some sections of the internet that we could all be obliterated by the 250 metre diameter monster, TU24 will actually sail safely past Earth, some 538,000 kilometres away at about half past midnight. You will need a telescope to see it though, at that distant the rock will be 50 times fainter than it would need to be to be visible (NASA press release).

These really rather rubbish images have been released by NASA, with each pixel representing about 20 metres. Next week we’re promised higher resolution snaps.

The Bad Astronomy blogger recently got quite incensed about a video claiming TU24 would hit us. Today he has fired back with his own video, saying, “I am fed up. For those who haven’t been following this saga, some doomsayers have been claiming that an asteroid named 2007 TU24 poses a grave threat to Earth. These fearmongers are completely wrong, scaring lots of others, and are apparently unwilling to listen to reason.”

This is however going to be the closest an asteroid of this size gets to Earth until 2027, says Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office (in Reuters, The Times, Fox, and others). Doomsayers can take heart though, the caveat “known” should be added in front of the word asteroid. There could still be a rock we haven’t seen yet on a course to make us the next dinosaurs…

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech