(Image credit: iStock)

A giant asteroid is headed straight toward Earth, but NASA says not to worry.

The asteroid, 2004 BL86, will be about 745,000 miles from Earth, which is roughly three times as far away as the moon is. That may sound far away, but today's event marks the closest known asteroid of its size to pass near Earth until 2027.

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Meghan DeMaria

Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.