Does this huge asteroid have us in its sights?

(Credit: NASA)

We're coming close to the doomsday of Mayan calendar/Nibiru lore and there's a huge, mountain-size asteroid in the neighborhood of Earth this week. Coincidence?

Of course it is. Sorry, apocalypse fans. The 3.4-mile-long asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will pass within 18 lunar distances of Earth on Wednesday, December 12, but won't require sending Steve Buscemi, Ben Affleck and friends to take it out.

But while the Earth probably won't end in a galactic rock-on-rock fender bender this week, you can follow the progress of the asteroid via the Slooh space camera online. Gather your friends, family, and canned goods in the underground bunker and pretend like it's the end of times.

Slooh will be broadcasting live images of the Toutatis flyby for the next few days online.

If you don't get your fill of pre-apocalyptic hype from the near collision (in galactic terms), stay tuned next week when Slooh will host a search for Nibiru, the sneaky planet of legend that will supposedly jump out from its hiding spot behind the sun any day now to smite us all.