[4] It was discovered during the night of 10–11 June 2012 by astronomer Robert H. McNaught and his colleagues using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, just four days before its closest approach to Earth.

[5][6] Arecibo radar observations on 19 June 2012 have shown that 2012 LZ1 is about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) in diameter and that 2012 LZ1 has zero chance of impacting the Earth for at least the next 750 years.

[3] A small change of trajectory caused by Earth's gravity was predicted from the 2012 passby.

[7] The Slooh Space Camera streamed live footage of the passby over the Internet.

[5] "We love it when stuff like this happens, because it's fun to do and the public appreciates it", said Slooh president Patrick Paolucci.