Giant Peanut-Shaped Asteroid to Pass Harmlessly by Earth Today

The asteroid 2014 JO25 will fly safely past Earth April 19, coming within 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km) of the planet — about 4.6 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. This map shows the asteroid's locations as it passes through the sky April 19 to April 22 — it will appear bright in the sky for small telescopes for a few days after closest approach. Its position will vary from location to location.

Credit: Gianluca Masi (Virtual Telescope Project)/TheSkySixPro

A huge, shiny, peanut-shaped asteroid will safely swing by Earth tomorrow morning (April 19), coming within a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) of the planet — about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon.

The bright asteroid 2014 JO25   is coming toward Earth from the sun's direction and should be visible in the sky in small telescopes for a few days afterward as it fades from view. It will be at its closest point to Earth at 8:24 a.m. EDT (1224 GMT). You can see a video animation of the asteroid's orbit here.

Asteroid 2014 JO25 was first spotted in May 2014 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, and measurements from NASA's NEOWISE mission suggested it was about 2,000 feet (650 meters) across, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Radar observations from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico suggest it could be as big as 4,270 feet (1.3 km) at its widest point.

The asteroid's surface reflects about twice as much light as the moon. Its approach marks the closest an object this large has come to Earth since the gigantic asteroid 4179 Toutatis tumbled by in 2004, within 4 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

The Aricebo Observatory caught this radio image of the asteroid 2014 JO25 on April 17, 2017, as the large, peanut-shaped asteroid neared its closet approach to Earth.

Credit: Aricebo Observatory/NASA/NSF

Wednesday's approach is the closest 2014 JO25 has come in at least 400 years, and there's no known close approach coming through at least the year 2500. Although the asteroid's approach poses no risk to Earth — with a 0 percent impact probability — the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center still classified it as "potentially hazardous" because of its size and nearness to Earth. Researchers will have to keep an eye on it to see if it drifts closer over the centuries, the Minor Planet Center wrote.

Astronomers around the world will study asteroid 2014 JO25 during and after its approach, including skywatchers at Arecibo and NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California, JPL officials said in the statement — making observations that can potentially reveal features just a few meters across.

"Using radar, we can illuminate a near-Earth asteroid and directly measure its features,"astronomer Edgard Rivera-Valentín, a planetary scientist with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at the Arecibo Observatory, said in a separate statement. That's how scientists pinned down the asteroid's peanut shape, he added.

The next close approach of a known giant asteroid will happen in 2027, when the half-mile-wide (800 m) asteroid 1999 AN10 passes by at about the distance from the Earth to the moon.

You can watch asteroid 2014 JO25's journey live on the Slooh online observatory's website starting at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) April 19. You can also seek it out in the sky using the celestial map above and a small telescope (although its position will vary, depending on your location).

While you're looking, keep an eye out for the comet PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61), which will be visible in the dawn sky to observers with binoculars or a small telescope as it makes its closest approach of 109 million miles (175 million km).