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Massive asteroid to pass close to Earth today

J025, discovered in May 2014, will be the largest asteroid to come this near to the planet since 2004

Reuters April 19, 2017

The passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system, is depicted in this handout image from NASA. PHOTOP: REUTERS

An asteroid more than a quarter mile [400 meters] wide will pass close to Earth on Wednesday, zooming by at a distance of just over a million miles [1.8 million km], but with no chance of impact, according to NASA scientists.

We obtained radar images of an asteroid that will safely fly by Earth tomorrow. Learn more: https://t.co/LX36CeU5ac pic.twitter.com/9EC72CfZYt
— NASA (@NASA) April 19, 2017

Smaller asteroids routinely make closer passes to Earth, but 2014 J025, discovered in May 2014, will be the largest asteroid to come this near to the planet since 2004, flying by at only about 4.6 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon, 1.1 million miles [1.8 million km].

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"We know the time that the object is going to be closest within seconds, and the distance is known within hundreds of kilometers," Davide Farnocchia, a mathematician at NASA's Near-Earth Object programme, said by telephone on Tuesday. Having several years of data on the asteroid's trajectory gives scientists the ability to predict its path very confidently, he added.

On Apr 19, #Asteroid 2014 JO25 will safely pass Earth by 1.1 million mi/1.8 million km, or 4.6 lunar distances. https://t.co/ppzPM1gfhZ pic.twitter.com/R89Nq0vmAf
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) April 6, 2017

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The asteroid, estimated to be between one-quarter and three-quarters of a mile [600-1,400 meters] wide and twice as reflective as the Moon, won't be visible to the naked eye, but sky watchers should be able to view it with home telescopes for one or two nights starting on Wednesday. The approach of J025 will be the asteroid's closest for at least the next 500 years.

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In 2004, the 3.1-mile [5-km] wide asteroid Toutatis passed about four lunar distances, or just under a million miles [1.6 million km] from Earth.

Amateur astronomers may be watching J025's journey, but Farnocchia said he and his colleagues have moved on to tracking even closer encounters, such as asteroid 1999 AN10, a half-mile [800-meter] wide rock predicted to pass only 236,000 miles [380,000 km] from Earth, or slightly less than the distance to the Moon, in 2027.