Maria Valdes, a postdoctoral researcher studying meteorites, holds pieces of a meteorite identified as coming from the asteroid Vesta on June 30, 2021, at Chicago's Field Museum. - Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS
PHILADELPHIA — A massive asteroid will whiz past the Earth on Saturday, but hold any thoughts of disaster movies. Though NASA defines the hunk of rock as a "near-earth object," the term near is relative. This asteroid will pass no closer than 2.6 million miles from us — 11 times the distance between here and the moon. The oblong asteroid, dubbed 2004 UE, is attracting attention because of its size: more than 1,000 feet long and 460 feet wide, give or take. For perspective, that's bigger than two Philadelphia City Halls, one piled on top of the other. Should anything that size ever come truly n...
