NEWS DESK
WASHINGTON, DC: An asteroid, the size of a minibus, made one of the closest passes of planet Earth ever recorded, at a distance well within the orbit of global satellites.
The small near-Earth celestial object, named 2023 BU, whipped over the southern tip of South America at 7:27 p.m. ET Thursday at only 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.
NASA said there was no risk of the asteroid striking Earth.
Even, if the space rock, estimated to be 11.5 to 28 feet (3.5 to 8.5 meters) across had made an impact on the Earth’s surface, it would have still not caused any significant damage. The object would have transformed into a fireball as it entered the planet’s atmosphere and disintegrated high in the sky falling onto the ground as small meteorites, according to the space agency.
Amateur astronomer in Crimea first picked up asteroid
Amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who operates from Nauchnyi in Crimea, first spotted the asteroid from the MARGO observatory on Saturday. Borisov had also previously discovered another space object interstellar comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.
Efforts have been underway to detect larger-sized space objects. However, huge bodies such as the monstrous 12km-wide rock that wiped out the dinosaurs, have likely all been detected and are not a cause for worry.
Statistics indicate that only about 40% of these asteroids have been spotted and assessed to determine the level of threat they might pose.
Such objects would inflict devastation on the city scale if they were to hit the earth’s surface.
