A car-sized asteroid is heading toward Earth for a flyby later tonight: Here's what you need to know

A car-sized asteroid will buzz Earth at a little over half the Earth-moon distance late tonight (March 24), just three days after its discovery by the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California.

The close encounter between Earth and the asteroid designated 2026 FM3 will occur at 10:07 p.m. EDT on March 24 (0207 GMT on March 25). The flyby will see the solar system object pass 147,836 miles (237,918 kilometers) from our planet's southern hemisphere — only 61.9% of the distance to the moon — while travelling at 11,461 miles per hour (18,444 kilometers per hour), according to NASA.

2026 FM3, which has an estimated diameter of between 4-8 meters (13-26 feet), will shoot past the moon a little over three hours later at a distance of 370,022 miles (595,492 km), posing zero risk to either body.