New discovered house-sized Asteroid 2014 RC will pass extremely close to Earth on Sep 7, 2014

Earth is about to have a close encounter with a house-sized asteroid on Sunday (Sept. 7 - 18:18 UTC) when a space rock discovered just days ago will zoom by our planet at a range closer than some satellites. But have no fear… NASA says the asteroid won't hit Earth.

This new discovered asteroid is just a reminder of the reality of the treat that it is just a matter of time a near Earth object (NEO) heading toward a collision with Earth.

The 60-foot (20 meters) asteroid 2014 RC will pass below the Earth and the geosynchronous ring of communications and weather satellites orbiting 35,890 km (22,300 miles) above our planet's surface.

Asteroid 2014 RC was initially discovered on the night of 31 August by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson AZ, and independently detected the next night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii.

Both reported their observations to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, MA. Additional follow-up observations by the Catalina Sky Survey and the University of Hawaii 88-inch on Mauna Kea confirmed the orbit of 2014 RC.

While 2014 RC will not impact the Earth, its orbit will bring it back to the Earth's neighborhood in the future. Its future motion will be closely monitored but no future threatening Earth encounters have been identified.