Asteroid the size of bus to zoom past Earth, ducking below satellites, Nasa says
- Closest approach will occur on Thursday morning over the southeastern Pacific Ocean
- Scientists estimate asteroids of this ‘puny’ size hit Earth’s atmosphere and burn up once every year or two
An asteroid the size of a school bus is headed our way, but Nasa says the space rock will zoom safely past Earth on Thursday.
The newly discovered asteroid will come within 22,000 kilometres (13,000 miles) of Earth, well below many of the communications satellites orbiting the planet, scientists said this week.
The closest approach will occur on Thursday morning over the southeastern Pacific Ocean.
Once it is gone, the asteroid will not be back to Earth’s neighbourhood until 2041.
Scientists estimate the asteroid is between 4.5 metres to 9 metres (15 feet to 30 feet) wide. By asteroid standards, that is considered puny.
Asteroids of this size hit Earth’s atmosphere and burn up once every year or two, said Paul Chodas, director of the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
There could be as many as 100 million of these little asteroids out there.
European space agency joins Nasa for asteroid defence mission
The real threats are the considerably bigger asteroids. The good news is that asteroids are easier to spot much sooner than just a few days out.
Asteroid 2020 SW, as it is known, was discovered on September 18 by the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
