PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. has captured new radar images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close to Earth.
The asteroid will safely fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028.
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New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- On Tuesday, asteroid 2005 YU55 is scheduled to pass near Earth, slightly closer than the moon. If you've seen the "Asteroid" (1997) or "Deep Impact" (1998) movies, you know why people pay attention to what NASA calls "potentially hazardous objects": A large asteroid hitting the Earth could cause global catastrophe.
YU55 will not hit the Earth anytime soon, certainly not in the next 100 years, according to NASA's Near Earth Object Program. Still, collisions of space rocks with the Earth must have happened many times over its 4.5 billion year history because the surface of the moon, our near sibling, is pitted with crater impacts left undisturbed by earthly weather, volcanoes, erosion or vegetation.
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A giant asteroid, Vesta, is seen in an image taken from the NASA Dawn spacecraft July 24, 2011
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