A Sneaky Asteroid Buzzed By Earth Yesterday

Smithsonianmag.com ^ | 10 Jan, 2016 | Jason Daley

[MtnClimber]

Monday at 7:47 A.M. EST, an asteroid passed by Earth at about half the distance between our planet and the Moon—roughly 119,500 miles, reports Mike Wall at Space.com. The space rock, dubbed 2017 AG13 was on the "smallish" size as far as asteroids go, Wall reports, thought to be between 36 and 111 feet wide.

But the most interesting thing about this near miss is that astronomers didn't spot the space rock till Saturday. It managed to fly under the radar for so long because the asteroid was fairly dim and moving fast (roughly ten miles per second). But just days before it passed us by, researchers at University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey caught a glimpse.

According to astronomer Eric Edelman at the Slooh Observatory, 2017 AG13 is an Aten asteroid, or a space rock with an orbital distance from the sun similar to that of Earth. AG13 also has a particularly elliptical orbit, which means that as it circles the sun it also crosses through the orbits of both Venus and Earth.

[CommerceComet]

Just what we need, stealth asteroids.

[JimRed]

as it circles the sun it also crosses through the orbits of both Venus and Earth.

Maybe we'll get lucky and it will be picked off by Venus before it crosses our orbit again.

[DannyTN]

[P.O.E.]

Thanks for the link - very cool indeed.

[SauronOfMordor]

The amount of mess would depend upon whether it broke apart in the atmosphere or actually hit.