Astronomers Say An Asteroid Will Be Joining Santa This Year On Christmas Eve
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This week we'll be visited by Santa's sleigh and an asteroid, on the same night.
Asteroid 2003 SD220 will be closest to us on Thursday evening, but Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute Science Museum says there's nothing to worry about, it will still be 6.7 million miles away.
"This object is about one and a quarter miles in length and curiously enough shaped like a chicken tender," Pitts said. "It's not made of chicken of course, but at that distance it may as well be because it's effect on us will be minimal."
He says it's too far for amateur astronomers to see. He says originally it may have been forming as a planet, but didn't' have the mass to complete the task.
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