Scientists advise people not to panic as the giant rock, which poses no threat to the planet, is closest on Sunday.
The largest asteroid hovering past Earth this year will be closest on Sunday.
But scientists have told people not to panic because it poses no threat to the planet.
The giant space rock that researchers call 2001 FO32 is several hundred meters in diameter and will approach Earth at a distance of about two million kilometers (1.2 million miles), the US space agency NASA said.
That distance is more than five times as far as the Earth from the Moon.
“It’s stable, it’s not on a risky course,” Detlef Koschny, an asteroid expert at the European Space Agency, told dpa news agency, adding that the celestial body will be available for viewing by amateur astronomers with the appropriate equipment.
“We know very accurately the 2001 FO32 orbital path around the sun, as it was discovered 20 years ago and has been tracked ever since,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which is operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
This particular asteroid, orbiting the sun once every 810 days, will fly past Earth at a speed of about 124,000 km / h (77,000 mph).
Following its harmless visit on Sunday, the FO32 will continue its lonely journey in 2001, not getting so close to Earth again until 2052, NASA said.
Scientists plan to use the flyby to study the asteroid more closely.
“We don’t know much about it,” Koschny said, adding that a close look at 2001 FO32 will help astronomers working on asteroid deflection projects.