The space rock passed at a distance of around 2,200 miles above the Earth's surface in a 'celestial near-miss'. By comparison, some satellites orbit at an altitude of more than 21,000 miles.
The space rock passed at a distance of around 2,200 miles above the Earth's surface in a"celestial near-miss". By comparison, some satellites orbit at an altitude of more than 21,000 miles.The Virtual Telescope Project captured this image of the asteroid when it was 37,000km above the Earth's surfaceAn asteroid the size of an elephant has passed by Earth in one of the closest encounters ever recorded.
The space rock, named 2023 BU, was projected to zoom over the southern tip of South America at about 12.29am on Friday, only 2,200 miles above the Earth's surface.By comparison, some satellites orbit at an altitude of more than 21,000 miles. NASA insisted before it passed the the planet that the rock had no chance of hitting Earth - and even if it came too close, scientists said most of it would burn up in the atmosphere.Its size was reckoned to be equivalent to an elephant or a minibus.While any asteroid in Earth's proximity will experience a change in trajectory due to the planet's gravity, 2023 BU came so close that its path around the Sun is expected to have been significantly altered.
"But we were lucky: at some point the sky improved and, while it was far from being decent, we could spot and track this rock, sharing the experience in real-time with a very huge international audience. "We could track it before clouds came back: at that point, 2023 BU was at about 28,500km from the Earth's centre, about 22,000 km above Earth's surface."
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