Newly discovered asteroid the size of an airplane will have 'very close encounter' with Earth on Saturday — and you can watch it happen (www.livescience.com)

submitted 9 months ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/space@lemmy.world

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

An asteroid discovered earlier this month will reach its closest point to Earth on Saturday (Jan. 27), when it will soar through the sky at a distance closer to us than the moon.

You can watch the airplane-size asteroid as it sails just 220,000 miles (354,000 kilometers) from Earth — more than nine tenths of the average distance between our planet and the moon — on a Virtual Telescope Project live feed from 12:15 p.m. EST. The flying space rock will reach its closest point to Earth at 12:30 p.m. EST, according to NASA.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Rhaedas@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

That orbit map shows it outside the Moon's orbit. Maybe the actual lunar orbit is a lot more elliptical than represented here?