A massive asteroid will make a rare fly-by on Tuesday and, although scientists say it poses no danger of colliding with the Earth, US scientists are eager for a closer look.
“This is not a potentially hazardous asteroid, just a good opportunity to study one,” said National Science Foundation astronomer Thomas Statler.
The circular asteroid, named 2005 YU55, is about 400m wide and will come closer than the Moon, zipping by at a distance of 325 000km, the US space agency said. The time of the nearest flyby is expected to be at 23:28 GMT.
The encounter will be the closest by an asteroid of that size in more than 30 years and a similar event will not happen again until 2028. However, those who want to see will need a telescope and the best place to spot it will be the east coast of the USA.
The asteroid is “going to be pretty faint when it flies by,” said Scott Fisher, programme director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Astronomical Sciences.
“It will not be visible to the naked eye. You will need a telescope that has a mirror at least six inches in size to see it. To make it even more difficult to observe, it will be moving very quickly across the sky as it passes.”
Several radar telescopes are set up in North America to catch glimpses of the space rock, Fisher added.