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DENVER (KDVR) — Tuesday afternoon an asteroid made its closest approach to Earth for the next 200 years.

An asteroid is a small rocky object that orbits the sun. Asteroids are smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids. The asteroid that passed close to Earth Tuesday afternoon is officially named Asteroid 7482 1994 PC1.

Scientists say it was about 1 million miles away from Earth as it passed by safely at 2:51 p.m. Tuesday. To put into perspective how close this was, it was five times the distance that the moon is from Earth.

The asteroid is estimated to be as large as 2.5 times the height of the Empire State Building and spans 0.6 miles in diameter. It is also traveling at 45,000 miles per hour.

The asteroid was not visible to the naked eye but was visible using a telescope.