Super Bowl Sunday Asteroid Will Be Wide Right (We Hope)

Fear not: Your Super Bowl parties aren't likely to get interrupted by a flaming ball of space rock. NASA is confirming that the "potentially hazardous" asteroid headed for us will miss Earth's uprights by more than a few yards.

Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will make a "close approach" around 4:30 p.m. EST on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 4, NASA said. By "close," NASA means it will be about 10 times the distance between Earth and the moon. That's roughly the gap between you and Tom Brady.

You can almost excuse the hysteria after NASA itself deemed the asteroid "potentially hazardous," making it sound like it should be sponsored by Gillette in a halftime commercial. But it's distance of 2.6 million miles isn't exactly a close shave.

So why the hysterics, NASA? Aren't you supposed to be the voice of reason?

It appears NASA was just doing what it always does. Asteroids that fly within 4.65 million miles of Earth are deemed "potentially hazardous." Don't look now: We've got two equally as threatening asteroids hurling past us on Friday alone.

But when media outlets caught on to the scary language NASA was using and combined that with Super Bowl Sunday, they had a viral sensation on their hands.

NASA has been tracking AJ129 for 14 years. So NASA officials say they feel they have a pretty good handle on its trajectory at this point.

But is there any chance it will nick us on the way by?

The Eagles have a better chance of winning the Big Game, according to Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif.

"Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance - zero - of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."

(Photo Courtesy of NASA/Newsmakers/Getty Images)