Close call heading towards earth

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - A close call Friday with something from outer space; it's called Asteroid 2012 DA14 and it will be passing by Friday afternoon. 

Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered by Spanish astronomers a year ago and scientists have been tracking it ever since.
    
The asteroid is estimated to be about 150 feet across, or about half the size of a football field. It's expected to pass 17,200 miles above the earth's surface, but inside the ring of weather and communications satellites orbiting the earth.

According to NASA's Near Earth Object Program, there's no chance that the asteroid could be on a collision course with the Earth.
 
Richard Sanderson from the Springfield Science Museum says we know about asteroids like 2012 DA14 a lot sooner than we used to. “Today we have better technology for detecting these rocks from the asteroid belt, so we're able to spot them early and plot their orbits and calculate their paths through the solar system.”
  
People 22News talked to didn't seem too concerned about the asteroid coming so close. Janie Tarver of Chicopee said,”If it's a distance from me I don't worry too much about it. If it comes, it comes. There's nothing I can do about it.

“If it's going to happen it's going to happen. There's nothing we can do about it I think really,” said Judy Wojcik of Chicopee.
  
The last time an asteroid this size hit the earth was back in 1908 in Russia. It leveled trees for 820 square miles.
 
The asteroid will pass by Friday afternoon at 2:24 and the best place to view it will be in Indonesia.