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How to watch as an asteroid zooms close to Earth this week
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How to watch as an asteroid zooms close to Earth this week

An asteroid is passing extremely close to Earth this week — and skywatchers have a chance to spot it.

Science & Tech

It's not uncommon for asteroids to pass relatively close to Earth, but it's rare that we actually get the chance to witness them as they soar by. Sometimes, researchers don't even know about near-Earth objects until after they have passed, but astronomers discovered Asteroid 2020 SW on Friday, ahead of its visit to Earth.

The asteroid will make its closest approach to our planet on Thursday. Eager skywatchers have the unique opportunity to witness 2020 SW's close approach via a live feed, courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project, starting on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET.

Dr. Paul W. Chodas, the director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told CBS News on Tuesday that the asteroid will be too faint to see with the naked eye, but viewers with 12-inch telescopes should be able to spot it. "It will be moving quite fast, and the amateur would have to know precisely where to look to find it" by using a star map, Chodas said.

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SW 2020 will get pretty close to Earth, but Chodas said it has "no chance at all" of colliding with us. He said it will come within about 14,000 miles of the planet's surface.