A large asteroid discovered three years ago will whiz past Earth on Wednesday, but there's no need to panic. To put that into perspective, it's almost four times the distance from Earth to the moon. After the sun sets on Wednesday, the asteroid should be visible to those using a small telescope. The pieces of debris larger than meteors, known as asteroids, pass within this distance of the planet more frequently, sometimes a few times a week. The last asteroid of similar size or larger to pass this close to Earth was Toutatis in September 2004; it was roughly five-kilometres wide and passed within four lunar orbits.

Source: CBC News April 18, 2017 19:07 UTC