The NASA-tracked Asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) will be closest to Earth towards the end of April. But even then, the so-called “Earth close approach” will see the asteroid whizz by from a distance of about by 3.9 million miles (6.29 million km).
Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi from the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy has already managed to photograph the asteroid.
Dr Masi snapped the space rock from an incredible distance of about 19 million miles (30 million km) from Earth.
He will track and stream online the asteroid’s flyby on the night.
As the asteroid creeps closer and closer towards us, OR2 will become gradually visible to amateur astronomers.
Eventually, Dr Masi said the asteroid will be bright enough for small telescopes to pick up.
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He said: “We continue observing the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2), while it slowly prepares its flyby with our Earth, coming as close as 6.3 millions of kilometres next month.
“So, a large distance, telling us it will not hit us.”
Despite being designated “potentially hazardous”, space agency NASA is certain the rock does not pose any threat to Earth.
Astronomers have been tracking the colossal object’s journey around the Sun since 1988.
NASA said: “A relatively small number of near-Earth objects pass close enough to Earth and are large enough in size to warrant close observation.
“That’s because the gravitational tug of the planets could, over time, cause an object’s orbital path to evolve into an Earth-crossing orbit.
So, a large distance, telling us it will not hit us
Dr Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project
“This allows for the possibility of a future collision.”
But distances in space can be deceptive and an approach deemed close in astronomical terms may not be close enough for NASA to sound the alarm bells.
NASA said: “As they orbit the Sun, near-Earth objects (NEOs) can occasionally approach close to Earth.
“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
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The asteroid will be closest to Earth on the morning of April 29.
NASA’s orbital calculations suggest the closest approach of about 16.36 lunar distances (LD) will occur at 10.56am BST (9.56am UTC, 4.56am EST).
The space agency estimates the rock is flying through space at speeds of about 8.7km per second or 19,461mph (31,320kmh).
The asteroid is also estimated to measure in the range of 1.1 miles to 2.54 miles (1.5km to 4.1km) in diameter.
Dr Masi snapped his pictures of the asteroid on March 16.
The pictures were taken with a robotic telescope dubbed Elena, over 10 180-second exposures.
Dr Masi said: “The image on the top shows the asteroid like a dot of light, with the stars leaving short trails on the background.
“In that case we aligned the frames used to create the final image considering the motion of the asteroid, slowly moving across the sky.
“The image on the bottom was, more ordinarily, aligned on the stars, so only the asteroid is trailing, while all the stars around are perfectly tracked.”
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