Large Asteroid 2014 JO25 Makes Near-Earth Pass

NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 19: Las Vegas Astronomical Society President Greg McKay looks at a computer screen showing a live feed of asteroid 2014 JO25 from his telescope outside the Planetarium at the College of Southern Nevada on April 19, 2017 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The near mile-long asteroid is traveling at 75,000 mph as it passes the Earth's orbit at almost 1.1 million miles from Earth, less than five times the distance from the Earth to the moon. Astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona discovered the asteroid in May 2014, as part of NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program. It is a contact binary asteroid (two connected rock lobes that were originally separate) giving it a peanut-like shape and is the closest any asteroid this large has approached Earth since September 2004. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)