Asteroid Icarus, the kilometre-long spacerock named after the Greek mythological character that flew too close to the sun, will skim past the Earth on Tuesday night making a rare “distant pass” of five million miles.
According to Nasa, the asteroid 1566 Icarus will safely pass by the Earth at more than 21 lunar distances, which is 21 times the distance between form the Earth to the moon.
The next time the rock is set to approach the Earth at this kind of close distance will not be until 2090, when it will skim past marginally closer at 17 lunar distances.
According to Slooh, the asteroid will be too dim to see through most domestic telescopes, but the community observatory will be livestreaming the Icarus’s distant passing of the Earth using its own robotic telescopes and cameras.
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