An asteroid will pass within 1 million miles of Earth on Wednesday, making
it the closest encounter with a major solar system object so far this
century.

Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the asteroid, called
4179 Toutatis, travels in an eccentric orbit that takes it from inside Earth's
orbit to the main asteroid belt, a loose agglomeration of planetoids and
boulders arranged in an orbit around the sun between Mars and Jupiter. It
is the closest-known asteroid that crosses Earth's orbit.

Toutatis, formerly called 1989 AC, was discovered in January 1989. An
image of the asteroid -- represented as a long streak -- appeared on
photographic plates taken on the Schmidt telescope in Chile.

Its discoverers named the asteroid after a Celtic/Gallic god whose name is
invoked often in the well-known comic book series Les Aventures d'Asterix,
set in ancient Gaul. Toutatis is the protector of Asterix and his compatriots,
who fear nothing except that someday the sky may fall on their heads.