Where is yu55 today

Any scope with an aperture greater than 6 inches should be able to spot YU55, experts say. The tricky part will be knowing where to look, since YU55 will be moving across the sky at about 7 degrees per hour your clenched fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees.

Note: If you snap a photo of asteroid YU55 during its Nov. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space. Mike Wall.

It has been tracking it, like thousands of other so-called Near-Earth Objects , since it was first spotted six years ago, and its path is well known. This asteroid happens to be a C-type -- one rich in carbon-based molecules. Billons of years ago, when the solar system was new and full of debris, asteroids like it probably crashed into the young Earth almost routinely, carrying organic, carbon-based materials, and making life possible.

Scientists would like to probe its chemical makeup, at least remotely. The factor that has put YU55 on the public's radar is that it is at least 1, feet wide -- larger than an aircraft carrier, according to radar measurements. The last time an asteroid this big passed by was in , and the next one scientists know of won't be until , NASA says. There have been some rude surprises in between, but they didn't anything remotely as large.

It is moving at about 29, mph relative to Earth's surface. Asteroids often pass this close, but most are tiny. Countless thousands of pieces come plunging into the atmosphere every day, but they burn up without doing any harm. If they're as large as grains of sand, we may, if we're lucky, see them in the night sky as shooting stars. I plan to target selected areas with my GOTO mount, sketch the field, then watch for changes.

I may also take some wide-field piggyback stills with the DSLR, but mostly, this one will just be fun to watch. The asteroid will pass through the constellations Aquila, Delphinus, and Pegasus as it heads westward. Interestingly, YU55 passes within a degree of Altair centered on PM EST only 27 minutes after local sunset, and also makes a very close pass of the star Epsilon Delphini during closest approach. On an approach as close as this one, two factors muddle the precise prediction coordinates of the asteroid; one is the fact the gravitational field of the Earth will change the orbit of YU55 slightly, and two is that the position will change due to the position of the observer on the Earth and the effect of parallactic shift.

Many prediction programs assume the Earthly vantage as a mere point in space, fine for positioning deep sky objects but not so hot for ones passing near the planet. A good place to get updated coordinates is JPL Horizons website which lets you generate an accurate ephemeris for your exact longitude latitude and elevation. Excellent information… many thanks to David for sharing with us! You can read the full article on his website here. And if you do witness the pass of this asteroid and somehow manage to get some photos of it, you can share them on the Universe Today Flickr group … they may be featured in an upcoming article!

The video features research scientist Lance Benner, an expert in radio imaging of near-Earth objects. Radar imaging allows scientists to better study the surface features and composition of fast-moving, dark objects like YU55 which reflect very little visible light.

Yes, it will be even closer than the Moon. The meter-wide asteroid YU55 is currently zipping through the inner Solar System at over 13 km 8 miles a second. On Tuesday, November 8, at p. EST, it will pass Earth, coming within , km , miles. It has no magnetic field.