Mystery asteroid 2015 RN35 to pass Earth on December 15; all you need to know

Space lovers can look forward to witnessing a mystery asteroid this week, as it passes the Earth. The middle-sized asteroid, known as 2015 RN35, which is 60-140 metres in diameter, is expected to pass by at 686,000 km distance (under two lunar distances) from Earth between December 15 and 17, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The ESA has also launched a challenge for space lovers to spot the asteroid which is not larger than the Statue of Liberty.

As per the ESA, countries in the southern hemisphere will get a better view of the mid-size asteroid than the northern hemisphere. The 2015 RN35 will be visible to people in Europe until about December 19.

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On its website, the ESA said that the middle-sized asteroid would fly close to Earth becoming visible to amateur astronomers around the globe who can spot it using ESA’s freely available Asteroid Toolkit. The space agency has launched a challenge called the #ESAChristmasAsteroid for people to spot the asteroid.

However, the 2015 RN35 is not easy to spot as it does not shine bright in the skies. It is also comparatively smaller on astronomical scales.

Thus, the ESA has urged the people who manage to spot it to share their observations on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit with the hashtag #ESAChristmasAsteroid, along with a little information about themselves and their location.

Not much is known about the 2015 RN35. As per the ESA, it is not known what the asteroid is made of or precisely how big it is or if it's spinning on its axis. Even its orbit is not perfectly known. Thus, spotting the asteroid may help get more information and it may offer key insights into the composition and trajectory of potentially hazardous objects as it flies by.

The chances of the asteroid's impact on Earth have been estimated to be zero in the coming hundred years.