This, to me, is truly mesmerizing. The Virtual Telescope Project in Italy captured this footage on January 26th as the asteroid (safely) made its way past Earth. For more about this asteroid’s journey and for other really neat ways to gain access to telescope time, please check out this link on their website: http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/news/

Although most of their telescope time is free, there are a few other ways to participate. If you would like to use their telescopes: http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/buy-telescope-time/.