Asteroid Earth: NASA Detects 2014 RC Space Rock to Pass Planet at Very Close Distance; Is Humanity Safe?

Asteroid Earth - Our planet will experience a "very close" encounter with a newly discovered asteroid as it passes us on Sunday, Sept. 7, NASA said.

According to ABC News, the space rock called asteroid earth, an estimated 60 feet (18 meters) long, is expected to hover approximately 25,000 miles above New Zealand - one tenth the distance between here and the moon - at around 2:18 p.m. EDT (11:18 a.m. PDT/ 18:18 UTC).

The asteroid earth reportedly won't hit our planet or any of the thousands of satellites orbiting us, giving astronomers a chance to study it as it passes us by safely.

Although the asteroid earth won't be visible to the naked eye, amateur astronomers should be able to observe it using telescopes.

Labeled by NASA as 2014 RC, the asteroid earth was originally discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona on August 31, and was independently detected by the Pan-Starrs 1 telescope in Hawaii the next night, Daily Mail has learned.

Thousands of asteroid earth - that pose threat to our planet - are estimated by NASA's Near Earth Object Program. However, experts said none of the ones being monitored will hit us anytime soon.

There are times though, when space rocks evade detection by the scientists and amateur astronomers, just like the case on February 15, 2013, when an almost 60-foot-wide meteor plummeted into ur planet's atmosphere and blasted over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk injuring about 1,500 individuals. Its impact was likened to the force of almost 30 nuclear bombs.

Scientists and astronomers failed to detect the Chelyabinsk meteor until it was spotted by a local resident streaking across the sky. It reportedly exploded the same day that NASA-tracked Asteroid 2012 DA14 safely missed the Earth.

NASA is attempting to improve or hasten its tracking of potentially threatening asteroid earth and to learn how to avert hazardous space rocks. Among its Asteroid Initiative is a plan to secure the asteroid and quickly pull it into orbit around the moon in the 2020s, CNN reported.