Original Article on Wired Magazine

By Mark Brown, Wired UKAn asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier is to soar past the Earth this week and, while NASA is certain that the space rock will not hit us, it will be our closest encounter with such a large chunk of rock in three decades.It is the closest approach by an asteroid, that large, that weve known about in advance, said principal investigator Lance Benner, from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in an educational announcement. This gives the space agency an unprecedented view of such a rare flyby and it will take full advantage.NASA will track 2005 YU55 from the Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California, and provide radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico. This should reveal a wealth...(read more)