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The Virtual Telescope Project captured this image of the near-Earth asteroid 2018 VX1 on Nov. 8, 2018.
Credit: Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project
A newfound asteroid will zip past Earth today (Nov 10), and you can follow the interloper's live online trek.
The asteroid 2018 VX1, which scientists think is from 26 feet to 59 feet wide (8 to 18 meters), will get within about 236,000 miles (380,000 kilometers) of our planet during this pass. Earth at an average distance of about 239,000 miles (384,600 km).
The Virtual Telescope Project will be released on 2018 VX1's flyby on Saturday, starting at 1 pm EST (1800 GMT). You can watch the show here at Space.com, or directly through the Virtual Telescope Project.
2018 VX1 was discovered just last week, on Nov. 4. The asteroid is about 1.6 Earth years to complete one lap around the sun. There is no risk of an impact on this flyby of our planet, scientists say.
Two other newly discovered asteroids will also zoom through Earth's neighborhood Saturday, though not one will get nearly as close as 2018 VX1 will. 2018 VS1 and 2018 VR1, both of which were 800,000 miles (1.3 million km) and 3.1 million miles (5 million km), respectively.
Such surprise visits reinforce just how many near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are out there and how few of them astronomers have spotted. The NEA population is thought to be in the millions, but researchers have detected and tracked just 19,000 such objects to date.
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Asteroid Basics: A Space Rock Quiz
Asteroids are fascinating for lots of reasons. They contain a variety of valuable resources and slam on our planet. How much do you know about space rocks?
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There is some good news, however: The risk of a cataclysmic, a useful civilization-ending impact is low, at least for now. Scientists think they've found more than 90 percent of the mountain-size.
Mike Wall's book on the search for alien life, "Out There," will be published on Nov. 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.
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