A small asteroid the size of a bus or shipping container made an extremely close pass by Earth on Wednesday night, coming within just 90,000 kilometers, or about 23% of the average Earth-Moon distance.
It is remarkable that until a few days ago no astronomer had any idea that the asteroid was approaching. However, the space rock in question named “2002 NF” passed safely past our planet.
Astronomers discovered the ‘sneaky’ asteroid on July 4 with the Pan-STARRS telescope system in Hawaii. The length of the asteroid is estimated to be between 5.5 and 12.5 meters, which is about the size of a bus to a shipping container.
Because of its small size, the asteroid did not meet NASA’s criteria to be considered “potentially dangerous” to our planet, as for such a designation it would have to be at least 140 meters. “2022 NF” completes one orbit around the Sun every six years.
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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