The Earth is about to get another cosmic wave "hello" courtesy of a newly-detected asteroid preparing for a "very close" flyby of our world, NASA says.
While it won't collide with the Earth and come close enough to threaten any of the thousands of satellite in orbit around us, it will still come within one-tenth of the distance from our world to our moon, considered close on a cosmic scale, astronomers say.
The space rock, around 60 feet long, won't be visible to the naked eye but anyone with a telescope of even just amateur quality will be able to get a glimpse of it as it makes its closest approach on Sunday.
The Catalina Sky Survey project near Tucson, Ariz., detected the asteroid, dubbed 2014 RC, on Aug. 31.
Subsequent observation in Tucson and by the Pan-STARRS telescope on Maui in Hawaii were reported to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass.
Additional observations conducted by the sky survey and the University of Hawaii's 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea on the Big Island allowed the asteroid's orbit to be determined, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said.
That determination shows that although 2014 RC won't hit the Earth, we won't have seen the last of it, the lab said in a statement.
"While 2014 RC will not impact Earth, its orbit will bring it back to our planet's neighborhood in the future," JPL officials said. "The asteroid's future motion will be closely monitored, but no future threatening Earth encounters have been identified."
People without a telescope can still get involved in this cosmic event as two webcasts will feature the flyby of the asteroid.
The online Slooh Community Observatory, known for its live coverage of celestial happenings, and The Virtual Telescope Project will both begin webcasts late Saturday.
At its closest approach, 2014 RC will be about 25,000 miles from Earth.
"While this celestial object does not appear to pose any threat to Earth or satellites, its close approach creates a unique opportunity for researchers to observe and learn more about asteroids," JPL officials said.
It joins more than 10,000 near-Earth objects scientists have already located and identified within our solar system.
