Huge asteroid knead with the Earth?

At Habré, I skipped information about the asteroid 2005 YU55, which should visit us this year, so I decided to fill the gap. So, on November 8, 2011 the asteroid 2005 YU55 will fly near the Earth at a distance of approximately 325,000 km. The diameter of the asteroid is about 400 meters and it is the largest object that will pass so close to the Earth until 2028. The asteroid intersects the orbit of the Earth every 30 years, but this time it comes very close.

Don Yemans, NASA's program manager for monitoring near-Earth objects, says that despite the proximity and size of the asteroid, at least in the next 100 years it is not dangerous. During the approximation, the gravitational effect will be so insignificant that it can hardly be measured.

Although similar asteroids had already been passed within the distance to the moon in the past, there were no technologies for studying them in detail. Therefore, now there is a good opportunity to explore asteroids on the example of 2005 YU55.


Animation of the asteroid flyby near the Earth.
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Side view. The Northern Hemisphere was more fortunate.

The asteroid can be observed with an ordinary amateur telescope. Most of all lucky people in North America.

UPD. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered in December 2005 by Robert Macmillan, head of the Spacewatch program. In April 2010, Mike Nolan received the first images, at this time the asteroid was at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers from Earth.

via jpl.nasa.gov