Close flyby Huge asteroid comes closer to us than the moon

Asteroids can potentially be very dangerous for the Earth. Now two of these celestial bodies are passing by our planet. One was discovered just a few days ago and is coming quite close to us.

Quite a short notice: an asteroid was only discovered on June 16, which will pass quite close to Earth at the weekend. The so-called NEO (Near-Earth Object) has a diameter of between 120 and 260 meters and is closer to us than the moon.

The rock hurtles past our planet at a distance of around 290,000 kilometers. According to the European Space Agency ESA, it can be observed with a telescope in the night sky.

Discovered just before it happened

The fact that the rather impressive celestial body was only discovered a few days before the flyby underlines the need to improve the ability to monitor potentially dangerous near-Earth objects, the ESA claims. The space agencies are currently aware of around 1.3 million asteroids. For the 35,000 or so known near-Earth objects, the scenarios for the next hundred years are being played out again and again.

Another asteroid will fly past us this Thursday. With a diameter of 2.3 kilometers, an impact on the Blue Planet would have devastating consequences.

Monster chunk keeps its distance

For comparison: in February 2013, an asteroid around 20 meters in size exploded over the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk. Around 1500 people were injured by the blast wave, mostly by shattering window glass.

However, the current chunk is passing us at a relatively decent distance of around 6.6 million kilometers. The European Space Agency's (ESA) asteroid defense office in Frascati near Rome has given the all-clear - zero danger. Despite the great distance, the asteroid can be observed with a better telescope when the night sky is clear, according to the ESA.