PASADENA, Calif., May 3 (UPI) -- Astronomers say they're readying their instruments to observe an aircraft carrier-sized asteroid that will come closer to Earth than our own moon does.

It will be a spectacular research opportunity, they say, but won't pose any threat to Earth, SPACE.com reported Tuesday.


There's no danger of a possible impact when the asteroid 2005 YU55 makes its closest approach Nov. 8, coming within 201,700 miles of Earth, scientists said.

However, the proximity will give them a chance to study it in detail, they said.

"While near-Earth objects of this size have flown within a lunar distance in the past, we did not have the foreknowledge and technology to take advantage of the opportunity," Barbara Wilson, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said. "When it flies past, it should be a great opportunity for science instruments on the ground to get a good look."

Astronomers at the University of Arizona in Tucson discovered the asteroid, about 1,300 feet across, in 2005.