A small asteroid will pass within 70,000 miles of Earth's surface on Friday -- a close but safe encounter.

They flyby will be streamed live online by the Virtual Telescope Project. Asteroid 2018 DV1 will reach its closest point to Earth at approximately 12:54 p.m. ET.

The flyby will mark the 18th time an asteroid has passed between Earth and the moon in 2018. It's possible others have passed without being spotted by astronomers. Scientists only just identified 2018 DV1 on Monday.

Because the asteroid is so small, between 20 and 40 feet in diameter, only especially powerful telescopes will be able to spot the space rock.

Earlier this week, astronomers used telescopes at the Tenagra Observatories in Arizona to snap a picture of the asteroid.

It's likely 2018 DV1 would break apart and disintegrate if it were to enter Earth's atmosphere, but as 2013's Chelyabinsk meteor proved, an asteroid doesn't have to be all that big or even hit Earth's surface directly to do considerable damage.

The Chelyabinsk meteor, a superbolide, a fireball brighter than the sun, exploded 19 miles above Russia's Chelyabinsk Oblast region with the force of 500,000 tons of TNT. The shockwave broke thousands of windows and sent hundreds of people to the hospital.

Related Links
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology

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Two Small Asteroids Safely Pass Earth This Week
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 08, 2018
Two small asteroids recently discovered by astronomers at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) near Tucson, Arizona, are safely passing by Earth within one lunar distance this week. The first of this week's close-approaching asteroids - discovered by CSS on Feb. 4 - is designated asteroid 2018 CC. Its close approach to Earth came Tuesday (Feb. 6) at 12:10 p.m. PST (3:10 p.m. EST) at a distance of about 114,000 miles (184,000 kilometers). The asteroid is estimated to be between 50 and 100 feet ... read more