The rocky object, called the 1998 OR2, passed by no closer than about 4 million miles, according to NASA .
While many astronomers consider 1998 OR2 to be making a close approach to the planet, it is still very far away.
So far, in fact, that it cannot be seen with the naked eye or a small telescope, the European Space Agency tweeted . The asteroid is "just at the limit of what is visible with medium-sized telescopes," the agency wrote.
Other things to check out:
A 'Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Visits, Venus Shines At Its Brightest: The Night Sky This Week
Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere's celestial highlights for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, eclipses and astronomy.
Venus will be just 27% illuminated this week, but despite that its brightness will be an incredible ... [+] sight.
Tonight it will be 27% illuminated, but despite that, its brightness will be an incredible sight. "It'll continue to be dazzling in the west after sunset for the next month, so it's a great time to look out for our nearest planetary neighbour," says Kerss. Look west after sunset to see Venus at its very best, and if you have a small telescope of a big pair of binoculars, use them!
A Nest of Alien Asteroids Orbits Our Sun - The New York Times
A pair of astronomers announced last week that they had identified 19 alien asteroids circling our sun.
The rocks were probably stolen from other nearby stars 4.5 billion years ago, during the birth throes of the sun. Today they mingle in the sky with a class of asteroids called Centaurs that inhabit outer realms of the solar system between Jupiter and Neptune.
But unlike the rest of the Centaurs, the aliens' orbits take them far out of the plane in which the planets go around the sun, suggesting that they were once circling other stars.
Massive asteroid to pass near Earth on Wednesday
Check out this next:
Large asteroid passes close to Earth on April 29 | 9news.com
ATLANTIC SKIES: With an asteroid skirting through our solar system, learn a bit more about our
No, I'm not talking about little green men from Mars or an alien race from another dimension popularized in sci-fi comics and movies, but rather those celestial objects - primarily asteroids - that have entered our solar system from interstellar space, the vast, distant regions between the stars.
There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids orbiting the neighbourhood of our solar system: debris left over from when the planets formed some 4.5 billion years ago, from the protoplanetary disk of dust ad gas surrounding our newly-formed sun.
Asteroid set to whizz past Earth | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT
A two-kilometre-wide asteroid is set to make a "close approach" to Earth, even if scientists define such a visit as still 6.3 million kilometres away.
Named 1998 OR2, it will be at its closest to Earth around 0955 GMT (1955 AEST) on Wednesday, at which point it will still be 16 times further away from our planet than the moon, according to the website of NASA, the US space agency.
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"As a result, we understand its orbital trajectory very precisely, and we can say with confidence that this asteroid poses no possibility of impact for at least the next 200 years. Its next close approach to Earth will occur in 2079, when it will pass by closer - only about four times the lunar distance," read the NASA statement.
Swarm of 19 mysterious 'alien' asteroids lurking near Jupiter from ANOTHER star system discovered
A GROUP of 19 “alien” asteroids lurking between Jupiter and Neptune may have come from another star system, according to scientists.
The findings come more than two years after astronomers spotted the first interstellar visitor, the asteroid known as ‘Oumuamua.
According to the scientists, unlike ‘Oumuamua, these space rocks have been orbiting the Sun for more than 4.5billion years, since the birth of the Solar System.
Happening on Twitter
Have questions about asteroid 1998 OR2, comet Borisov, or comet Atlas? Want to know more about these cosmic objects… https://t.co/VDNRFqVOPc NASAUniverse (from Greenbelt, MD) Tue Apr 28 19:06:58 +0000 2020
Have you ever seen a headline claiming an asteroid is headed for Earth? You can fact-check these claims by visitin… https://t.co/90gWf7sYzN AsteroidWatch (from Washington, D.C.) Mon Apr 27 19:09:37 +0000 2020
Today an asteroid called 1998 OR2, roughly one mile across, passed us by safely at a distance of almost 4 million m… https://t.co/n7PUxK3AtQ tomkerss (from Greenwich, London) Wed Apr 29 12:46:44 +0000 2020
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