Asteroid

About the size of a bus, the space rock whipped over the southern tip of South America.

"2023 BU is a recently discovered object supposedly the size of a small bus which must have passed by the Earth thousands of times before. But come down in size to something that is, say, 150m across and our inventory has gaps. The asteroid will then complete one orbit every 425 days." It would have produced a spectacular fireball, however. "However, there are likely many asteroids out there that remain undiscovered that could penetrate the atmosphere and hit the surface to cause significant damage - indeed many scientists think we could be due such an event." This time it passes by only 2,200 miles from the Earth - just 1% of the distance to the moon - a celestial near miss.

NASA says the object is small and will miss the planet by 2500 miles.

NASA adds: “There is no risk of the asteroid impacting Earth. This is not true. Thanks to diligent teams of #planetarydefense experts, we know It poses zero risk to Earth.” Their tweet sharing this article, which was published on 24 January and, at the time of writing has been viewed more than 460,000 times, is captioned “Brace yourself”. Preview text visible in the tweet A huge asteroid is set to hit the Earth this week.

The Virtual Telescope Project is run by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy and consists of several robotic telescopes that are accessible online.

[NASA website](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/next-five-approaches) displays the next five asteroid approaches expected near Earth, showing how they are typically extremely far away. How can I watch the asteroid pass close to Earth? The relative near miss will be streamed live using robotic telescopes - here's what you need to know about the asteroid and how you can watch it. Should I be worried about the asteroid crashing to Earth? An asteroid is to come very close to Earth in the coming hours, passing just a few thousand kilometres above the planet's surface. Earth to have near miss with asteroid in the coming hours - here's all you need to know

Asteroid 2023 BU will zoom over the southern tip of South America only 2200 miles above the the planet's surface.

Professor Don Pollacco, from the department of physics at the University of Warwick, said: “There are still asteroids that cross the Earth’s orbit waiting to be discovered. While any asteroid in Earth’s proximity will experience a change in trajectory due to the planet’s gravity, 2023 BU will come so close that its path around the Sun is expected to be significantly altered. “Depending on what 2023 BU is composed of it is unlikely to ever reach the Earth’s surface but instead burn up in the atmosphere as a brilliant fireball – brighter than a full moon.

A huge asteroid has narrowly passed the Earth tonight, flying past the tip of South America in one of the closest approaches of known near-Earth object on ...

Professor Don Pollacco, from the department of physics at the University of Warwick, said: "There are still asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit waiting to be discovered. "Depending on what 2023 BU is composed of it is unlikely to ever reach the Earth's surface but instead burn up in the atmosphere as a brilliant fireball - brighter than a full moon. He added: "In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded." "This time it passes by only 2,200 miles from the Earth - just 10% of the distance to the moon - a celestial near miss. It was well within the orbit of the planet's satellites but experts have said there was no risk of the asteroid - estimated to be 11.5ft to 28ft across - smashing into Earth. Experts had insisted that there was no chance the asteroid would hit Earth, but the space rock came 10 times closer to the planet than many of the communication satellites above us.

It will be well within the orbit of the planet's satellites, Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said. Experts say there is no risk of the asteroid – which ...

[University of Warwick](/news/topic/university-of-warwick), said: “There are still asteroids that cross the Earth’s orbit waiting to be discovered. “This time it passes by only 2,200 miles from the Earth – just 10% of the distance to the moon – a celestial near miss. [asteroid](/news/topic/asteroid) the size of a small truck will pass by [Earth](/news/topic/earth) tonight, making one of the closest approaches to the planet ever recorded.

But the penguin asteroid is only the latest example of a common strategy in science communication: evoking images of familiar, earthly objects to convey the ...

Sure, a reader might be disappointed to discover that the asteroid in question isn’t shaped exactly like an alligator, but they might also learn something illuminating about asteroids that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Some scientists [likened](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/predicting-the-unpredictable-the-dynamics-of-dart-s-dive-into-an-asteroid) the size of that asteroid, named Dimorphos, to a football stadium; others [compared](https://sea.mashable.com/life/21459/how-to-watch-nasa-slam-a-spacecraft-into-an-asteroid) it to an Egyptian pyramid. Scientists would have to consider darker metaphors, perhaps tallying the energy of the impact in nuclear detonations. Imagine how much more violent that would have felt if scientists and journalists had compared the asteroid to something squishier than a stadium. The asteroid that led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have been about 10 kilometers (32,000 feet) wide—which, she notes, is close to the cruising altitude of an airplane. (As for the journalists who write about asteroids, I tried to contact the authors of the Jerusalem Post and Daily Mail stories, but they haven’t responded). [the craggy ground beneath us](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/asteroid-ryugu-hayabusa2-japan/571168/)—a thought exercise that could make a faraway cosmic object less inscrutable. Now, if someone asked me to describe the size of an asteroid (or anything, for that matter), penguins wouldn’t be the first unit that comes to mind. Without a convention to guide them, scientists follow their own preferences (and so, it seems, do journalists). “I remember seeing some penguins at the zoo when I was in the Southern Hemisphere, and they were bigger than I thought they would be.” Even if people can fairly accurately picture a penguin, comparing something to 22 of them “requires the reader to imagine 22 (cute!) penguins standing on each other’s shoulders—something no one has ever seen before,” David Polishook, an astronomer at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, told me in an email. “Nobody’s ever visited an asteroid, so not even astronauts have firsthand experience of what it’s like.” And if they did, they probably wouldn’t think, Ah, yes, just as I expected—it’s as tall as 40 sea turtles stacked like a sleeve of crackers. Usually, small asteroids are said to be the size of

Nasa says it is fourth closest approach of an asteroid since records began.

The asteroid will then complete one orbit every 425 days.” It is the fourth closest approach of an asteroid since records began, according to Nasa says it is fourth closest approach of an asteroid since records began

The space rock passed at a distance of around 2200 miles above the Earth's surface in a "celestial near-miss". By comparison, some satellites orbit at an ...

Professor Don Pollacco, from the department of physics at the University of Warwick, said before the space rock flew past: "There are still asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit waiting to be discovered. By comparison, some satellites orbit at an altitude of more than 21,000 miles. An asteroid the size of an elephant has passed by Earth in one of the closest encounters ever recorded. "This time it passes by only 2,200 miles from the Earth - just 10% of the distance to the moon - a celestial near-miss. Asteroid the size of an elephant passes Earth in one of closest encounters ever The space rock passed at a distance of around 2,200 miles above the Earth's surface in a "celestial near-miss".

An asteroid the size of a small truck will pass by Earth tonight, making one of the closest approaches to the planet ever recorded.

[University of Warwick](/topic/university-of-warwick), said: “There are still asteroids that cross the Earth’s orbit waiting to be discovered. While any asteroid in Earth’s proximity will experience a change in trajectory due to the planet’s gravity, 2023 BU will come so close that its path around the Sun is expected to be significantly altered. “Depending on what 2023 BU is composed of it is unlikely to ever reach the Earth’s surface but instead burn up in the atmosphere as a brilliant fireball – brighter than a full moon.