A large asteroid will pass safely by early next week, and you may be able to see it! The asteroid is called (52768) 1998 OR2 and will be the largest asteroid to come this close to Earth this year. From the images coming back, astronomers suggest the asteroid is more than a mile wide and more than twice that long. 

Here's the cool thing: astronomers are using radar to estimate those dimensions of the asteroid. Radar is what we use to show you where rain is falling or how wind is moving inside a thunderstorm. The image above is from Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico showing a radar image of the asteroid! This was taken April 18th when they go the first good image back of the asteroid. 

The image above from NASA shows the orbit of this asteroid. It will pass Earth at a distance of roughly 4 million miles - that's almost 17 times as large as the distance from here to the moon. It will be at its closest point to the Earth on April 29, but you won't be able to see it without some help.  If you have a telescope, you might be able to see the asteroid as it flies by! It would look like a slow moving star on the morning of April 29, around 6 AM. The Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will also be live streaming the fly by if you're interested in watching.