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Asteroid flyby today: Too close for comfort?

An aircraft carrier-size asteroid is scheduled to pass near Earth later today, and NASA is snapping images as it comes closer.

According to the U.S. space agency, asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass no closer than 201,700 miles from Earth, or about 85 percent of the distance between our planet and the moon. The asteroid is expected to be closest to the planet at 3:28 p.m. PT. Because of its distance from Earth, NASA doesn't expect the asteroid to have any impact on tides or tectonic plates.

Although the space rock will be at a safe … Read more

Giant asteroid to get closer than moon

Never mind the recent spate of satellite showers. An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier is sailing toward Earth, NASA says.

Never fear, however. The space agency says that although next week's flyby of Asteroid 2005 YU55 will bring the rock closer to our home planet than even the moon gets, the asteroid will cruise safely past, leaving in its wake not destruction but data.

The agency has already begun using radio waves to scan the 1,300-foot-wide space rock, which will get closest to Earth on Tuesday at about 3:30 p.m. PT. With antennas at its Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico, NASA hopes to gather a wealth of detail about the asteroid's surface features, shape, dimensions, and other physical properties.… Read more