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An Asteroid Discovered Friday Will Pass Inside the Moon's Orbit Today

Make sure you’re ready.
Steward Observatory via Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

Unless you're a jerk rooting for the apocalypse, it’s nice to be reminded that people are looking out for all the asteroids filling the universe. People like the researchers at University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, who on Friday discovered an asteroid that’s passing between the Earth and the Moon today.

The white line is Earth's orbit, the blue is RZ53's, the yellow line is the solstice near where they almost intersect, via JPL

If that window of less than a week strikes you as too close for comfort, take solace in the fact that this asteroid, named 2013 RZ53, is just a little guy, somewhere between 5 and 12 feet across. Even if it did come crashing into the Earth—and it won’t, at least not this time—it would likely burn up before hitting the ground.

After all, the 75-ton meteor that came crashing down over California left just 950 recoverable grams for researchers to find. The Russian meteor that famously blew minds across the globe was 56-66 feet across and while it made a bright, terrifying streak across the sky and an accompanying shock wave.

2013 RZ53 won’t even get to try to scare the bejesus out of anyone, this time, though. It will pass by Earth from 148,000 miles up, well inside the Moon’s orbit, but still above the highest man-made satellites.

Since its discovery researchers have been back-tracking the asteroid, and have mapped its orbit, which is fairly close to Earth’s own. The last time RZ53 was this close to Earth was back in the 1950s and won’t be back this close until March 2073.

If you’re still feeling unsettled by the vast number of asteroids that we just don’t know about, and you feel strongly enough to do something about it, NASA is ready to accept your help. At World Maker’s Faire this weekend, NASA is going to explain how members of the public can use personal computers on do-it-yourself projects to track and understand asteroids.

After all, we only have 60 years until this punk-asteroid 2013 RZ53 comes back. You'll want to make sure you’re ready.