It will be a relatively close call, though -- the pass this week will be a record-close approach for a known object of this size. Although it won't be visible with the naked eye, as it is fairly small, viewers in eastern Europe, Asia, or Austraila should be able to see 2012 DA14 using a telescope or a pair of binoculars when it will pass inside the ring of Earth's geosynchronous weather and communications satellites this week, coming within just 17,200 miles of the Earth's surface at around 19:30 UTC. 20 years ago, NASA would not have even been able to detect this threat to Earth, but 15 years ago NASA established the Near Earth Object Program, known by many by its nickname "Spaceguard." With the original goal of finding 1km or larger objects which might be threat, the program has been quite a success, having found 95% of those 1km or larger sized asteroids, NASA says, but they have also notably found many smaller asteroids, such as the approaching 2012 DA14. You can following the Near Earth Object Program on Twitter at @asteroidwatchazardous asteroids & comets that could approach Earth.

It will be a relatively close call, though -- the pass this week will be a record-close approach for a known object of this size.

Although it won't be visible with the naked eye, as it is fairly small, viewers in eastern Europe, Asia, or Austraila should be able to see 2012 DA14 using a telescope or a pair of binoculars when it will pass inside the ring of Earth's geosynchronous weather and communications satellites this week, coming within just 17,200 miles of the Earth's surface at around 19:30 UTC.

20 years ago, NASA would not have even been able to detect this threat to Earth, but 15 years ago NASA established the Near Earth Object Program, known by many by its nickname "Spaceguard." With the original goal of finding 1km or larger objects which might be threat, the program has been quite a success, having found 95% of those 1km or larger sized asteroids, NASA says, but they have also notably found many smaller asteroids, such as the approaching 2012 DA14.

You can following the Near Earth Object Program on Twitter at @asteroidwatch for up to date information on potentially hazardous asteroids & comets that could approach Earth.