Asteroid Icarus will safely pass by the Earth on Tuesday night, making a rare "distant pass" of five million miles, or equivalent to 21 lunar distances, which is 21 times the distance from the Earth to the moon, The Independent reported.
The next time this kilometer-long space rock will pass the Earth at a close distance will not be until 2090 for 17 lunar distances. The nearest it skimmed the Earth was in 1968 at 16 lunar distances, or four million miles.
This asteroid, named after the Greek mythological character that flew too close to the sun, is one of the first asteroids that was discovered and identified in 1949.
According to Slooh, the asteroid will be too dim to see through most domestic telescopes, but the community observatory will be live-streaming the asteroid's distant passing of the Earth using its own robotic telescopes and cameras.
However, it can be seen through 8-inch telescopes (or larger), or on live-streamed videos if the weather permits.
Icarus apparently makes close approaches to the Earth in the month of June every nine, 19 or 28 years.
In 2009, "Project Icarus" was conducted at MIT wherein in a team of systems engineering graduate students designed ways to deflect or destroy the asteroid if ever the asteroid will be in collision course with Earth.
