(Photo Courtesy of NASA/Newsmakers)

This is an exciting day if you love science or space. A 50 meter asteroid (about half a football field) will pass within 17,150 miles of the Earth today at around 1:25PM our time.

This close approach will bring it inside the orbits of many of our satellites. It’s the closest any space object has come without actually entering our atmosphere, like a meteor over Russia did this morning.

We won’t be able to see it until after dark this evening, but by then it will long after its closest approach. You’ll need a strong telescope to catch a glimpse of the asteroid.

NASA will be showing a live stream of the asteroid approaching and passing today on uStream and on NASA TV.