Newly discovered asteroid to pass by earth today

Washington, April 8 (ANI): A newly discovered asteroid is set to pass by earth today, but experts say it poses no danger to the planet.

Discovered by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Az, the asteroid, called 2010 GA6, is a relatively small space rock about 71 feet wide.

The space rock will fly within the orbit of the moon when it passes Earth Thursday at 7:06 p.m., but NASA astronomers say it poses no threat to the planet.

"Fly bys of near-Earth objects within the moon's orbit occur every few weeks," Fox News quoted Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as saying in a statement.

At the time of its closest pass, the asteroid will be about 223,000 miles from the Earth. That's about nine-tenths the distance between Earth and the moon. (ANI)