Asteroids Toutatis and XE54 give Earth
a close flyby last week. Toutatis passes
by Earth every 4 years at a distance of
4 million miles and it's clearly visible
with a telescope.
The new asteroid, XE54 discovered just
last week, came "a little too close for comfort,"
within 140,000 miles of our planet. It came
"about as close to crashing into Earth as an
asteroid possibly can, without actually doing so,"
according to The Washington Post. Astronomers
say that XE54 was small enough that most of it
would have burned up in the atmosphere but
Space.com noted that the fact that it was not
spotted until it was basically upon us is a
"troubling sign."
It is estimated that there are over 4,000 Near
Earth Objects (NEOs), which are big enough to
take out a chunk of land the size of a state, that
routinely pass close to the Earth, of which only
30% have been identified.
Video (about 1 and a half mins): a close flyby last week. Toutatis passes
by Earth every 4 years at a distance of
4 million miles and it's clearly visible
with a telescope.
The new asteroid, XE54 discovered just
last week, came "a little too close for comfort,"
within 140,000 miles of our planet. It came
"about as close to crashing into Earth as an
asteroid possibly can, without actually doing so,"
according to The Washington Post. Astronomers
say that XE54 was small enough that most of it
would have burned up in the atmosphere but
Space.com noted that the fact that it was not
spotted until it was basically upon us is a
"troubling sign."
It is estimated that there are over 4,000 Near
Earth Objects (NEOs), which are big enough to
take out a chunk of land the size of a state, that
routinely pass close to the Earth, of which only
30% have been identified.
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