On Tuesday, the asteroid known as YU55 will come closer to our planet than any other asteroid has come since 1976.
Of course, when it comes to outer space, "close" is a relative word. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena say YU55 will come within 201,700 miles of Earth and no closer. That's nearer than we are to the moon, but far enough away to eliminate the possibility of a collision.
"We know exactly where it is going to be, and we don't have any chance of impact for the following hundred years," Marina Brozovic, a scientist and member of the JPL Goldstone radar team, told The Times. Her team plans to track the asteroid beginning Friday.
"It is just a great scientific opportunity. It is really, really exciting."
Asteroids are basically space rocks — debris created when the solar system was formed. YU55 is a moderate-size asteroid — about 1,300 feet wide, or about the width of four football fields stretched end to end. Radar images taken in 2010 by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico revealed that it appears to be spherical in shape and rotates in about 18 hours.
That same year, an optical telescope revealed the rock to be a C-class asteroid, meaning it's probably darker than charcoal and contains a lot of carbon.
If YU55 will pass between the earth and the moon and it will be 201 thousand miles from the earth, that means it will only be 38,000 miles from the moon.
Maybe we should be more concerned with YU55′s interaction with the moon.