An asteroid narrowly passed by the Earth on Thursday.
The space rock was first spotted last weekend by an amateur astronomer,
highlighting that some objects near our planet remain undetected.
More:
- The delivery-truck-sized object came within 2,200 miles of Earth, closer than some telecommunications satellites.
- It reached its lowest altitude at about 19:27 EST on Thursday.
- If
the asteroid were on a collision course with Earth, it would have
disintegrated in the atmosphere due to its size, but would have probably
generated a fireball.
- The object was first detected on Saturday by Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer in the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea.
Zoom Out:
- NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office in 2014 to address the potential threat of nearby objects in space.
- The
office was established after an asteroid the size of a six-story
building broke up near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013 causing a
blast more powerful than a nuclear explosion.
