Apophis will fly by Earth at a distance of 15 million kilometres next month - a distance which will not influence the orbital path of the asteroid but will be close enough to see for the average person using telescopes.
The passing next month will not be close enough for it to be influenced by Earth s gravitational pull, but it does provide a rare glimpse at the asteroid.
The latest image was taken by astronomers at the Virtual Telescope Project.
The institute said: Eight years after our past observations, we captured again (99942) Apophis, the king of potentially hazardous asteroids.
Asteroid Apophis: Astronomers take stunning image of feared God of Chaos (Image: GETTY - VIRTUAL TELESCOPE PROJECT)
NASA firs reported 2020 SO as an asteroid in September 2020
In December, it came within 30,000 miles of Earth, allowing closer analysis
It was confirmed to be a Centaur booster rocket from 1966 s Surveyor 2 mission
2020 SO will make one last pass on February 1 and 2 before heading into space
There have been two other reported mini-moons, in 2006 and in February 2020
As it did, it got caught in Earth s orbit, giving our planet a new mini-moon .
Analysis from NASA revealed the asteroid in question was actually a rocket booster from the launch of Surveyor 2 in 1966.
The object was a Centaur rocket booster, which was used to launch Surveyor 2 in what was NASA s second time landing an uncrewed machine on the Moon.
NASA collected data from the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and orbit analysis from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to determine the orbit of 2020 SO.
Asteroid 2020 SO: Watch live as space object comes very close to Earth (Image: NASA - VIRTUAL TELESCOPE PROJECT)