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Photo of the file: The dwarf planet Ceres is seen in the main belt of asteroids, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as shown in the design of this undated artist published by NASA on January 22, 2014. REUTERS / NASA / ESA / Document via Reuters
A huge asteroid is so close to the Earth that it is visible to the naked eye.
The rock of space, known as 4 Vesta is four times the size of the UK and so bright that it can be spotted at 106 million miles.
It is visible in both hemispheres, where it can be seen in the night sky near Mars, Saturn and the constellation Sagittarius.
The asteroid measures more than 326 miles in diameter, 50 times wider than the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, will be visible in the night sky until July 16th.
Vesta was discovered in 1807 and was named after the Roman goddess of home and home, who is the sister of Ceres – the name of the largest asteroid in the belt, which measures 587 miles in diameter.
Ceres has recently been reclbadified as a dwarf planet.
The rock lies in the asteroid belt and is one of the largest known to man.
From Earth, the huge stone appears as a dark yellow dot.
Vesta is easy to spot compared to other asteroids in the same belt because its surface is more reflective than the moon.
The asteroid belt is a space debris ring that revolves around the sun and between Mars and Jupiter.
More recently, Vesta has come closer to our planet for 20 years.
The surface of the asteroid is pitted with craters that are believed to have been caused by a large eruption that the rock has undergone in its formative years.
The largest crater is 285 miles in diameter.
Vesta is also known to have one of the highest peaks ever seen by humans, a 13-mile high mountain that stands on its south pole.
It is almost as high as the highest mountain of the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars which is 15 miles high.
Mount Everest is only 5.5 miles up.
This story originally appeared in The Sun.
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