text: Asteroid (4179) Toutatis to Pass Closely By Earth on Wednesday &lt;b&gt;...&lt;/b&gt; Toutatis, a potato-shaped asteroid about 4.6 km (3 miles) in its longest extent, will pass within 1,550,000 km (963,000 miles) of the Earth #39;s center on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - reaching its closest approach at 13:35:28 GMT (06:35:28 PDT).