An Unexpected Asteroid Buzzed by Earth Last Sunday
The space rock is one of the largest ever to come in such close proximity to our planet
By Julissa Treviño
smithsonian.com
April 18, 2018 12:41PM
While most of us were sleeping last Sunday morning, Earth had a close call with an asteroid that had been detected a mere 21 hours before it zipped past.
As Live Science’s Elizabeth Howell writes, the asteroid, officially known as 2018 GE3, was about the size of a football field, measuring between 157 and 361 feet in diameter. At its closest point to Earth, it passed by some 119,500 miles away—about half the distance between the Earth and the moon.
First observed at Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona on Saturday, April 14, it flew closest to Earth in the wee hours of the following morning at 2:41 A.M. E.D.T. The asteroid was zipping along at 66,174 miles per hour, Eddie Irizarry reports for Earth Sky.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/asteroid-flew-earth-unexpectedly-sunday-180968818/#w8QAQ8mQ5rQGpZ0r.99
