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Asteroid whizzing by Earth this week

Posted at 9:00 PM, Apr 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-19 22:00:27-04

A 2,000-foot wide asteroid is passing by the Earth on Wednesday at a distance of of 1.1 million miles, making it one of closet approaches by an asteroid of this size in this decade.

The asteroid, 2014 JO25, will be about 4 times the distance of the moon as it makes it closest approach to Earth. The asteroid poses no risk to the Earth, NASA said. 

NASA said that the asteroid will be visible with a small telescope Wednesday and Thursday nights. 

According to NASA, 2014 JO25 is the closest an asteroid of its size will come to the Earth until 2027, when the half-mile-wide asteroid 1999 AN10 will fly by at just 225,000 miles away from the Earth. 

2014 JO25 is on a path from the outer reaches of the solar system, past Earth's orbit. It will continue to pass by the Earth, but not coming close to the Earth again for another 500 years.