The object will come within about 3 million miles of our planet.
The so-called binary asteroid, known as 1999 KW4, will make its closest approach at 7:05 p.m. ET on May 25, NBC News reported, when it will be roughly 3.2 million miles from Earth—a safe distance but relatively paltry in space terms. For context, this figure is about 13.5 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
1999 KW4 was first discovered in 1999 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research facility in New Mexico. Since then, it has been extensively tracked and studied by astronomers. In fact, the object will be closely watched during its latest close approach by scientists at various observatories as part of an international effort to protect Earth from future catastrophic asteroid strikes.
1999 KW4 has been classified as a Near Earth Object , a term that refers to any asteroid or comet whose orbit takes it within 121 miles of the sun, as well as within approximately 30 million miles of Earth.
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