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The orbit and position of the asteroid, which is about 1,312 feet in diameter, is well known, added senior research scientist Don Yeomans, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon," Yeomans said.
At its closest point, the space rock will be about 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) away, which is 0.85 the distance between the moon and the Earth. NASA says that the asteroid will reach this point at 6:28 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
"In effect, it'll be moving straight at us from one direction, and then go whizzing by straight away from us in the other direction," Benner said.
An asteroid this size -- which, according to Scientific American is larger than an aircraft carrier -- would cause widespread damage if it were to hit Earth, however. The Associated Press spoke to Jay Melosh, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, who said that the asteroid would create a four-mile wide crater 1,700 feet deep. It could cause 70-foot tsunami waves and shake the ground like a magnitude-7 earthquake.
Even though the asteroid will be inside the orbit of the moon, NASA said that the space rock's gravitational pull shouldn't have any "detectable effect" on Earth's tectonic plates or tides.
Near miss by Asteroid 2005 YU 55 will occur at 6:28 p.m. EST (2328 GMT) Tuesday
It always amazed me (although scientists don't talk about it) that the thing that hit the earth around 1912 hit the most remote spot on the planet in Tonguska Siberia rather than downtown NY or L.A. "No athiests in the foxholes"?
Asteroid Yu55 on course for close encounter with Earth | Science | The GuardianScientists say the asteroid, which is about a quarter of a mile wide, will pass inside the moon's orbit and come within 198,000 miles (319,000km) of Earth at 23.28GMT
I read that NASA just released a satelite photo of the approaching asteroid....
Oh, where are all the doomsayers anyway. I thought we would have been hearing about the end of the world already!!!
near miss? o please....we wont even be able to see it with the naked eye
1,300 feet in diameter would seriously fuck up your day. Likely kill everything around the impact zone for 500-800 miles or more. Sends the planet into a decade long ice age.
