Earth obtained a comparatively shut shave this morning (Dec. 4), as a large house rock zipped by simply 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) away.
The asteroid, known as 2020 XR, made its closest strategy right now at roughly 12:26 a.m. EST (0526 GMT), passing just below six occasions the gap between Earth and the moon. The flyby got here on the fourth anniversary of 2020 XR’s discovery,.
Asteroid 2020 XR is someplace between 1,000 and a couple of,300 ft (300 and 700 meters) large, in keeping with the European Space Agency (ESA). At roughly the scale of a giant stadium — or a number of million elephants, in keeping with ChatGPT — 2020 XR is greater than able to destroying one in all our Earth cities, ought to the asteroid ever occur to tragically intersect with one. And, for a short time after the asteroid’s 2020 discovery, astronomers feared the house rock had an opportunity of doing simply that.
The near-Earth object (NEO) was found utilizing the Pan-STARRS 2 observatory in Hawaii 4 years in the past. The asteroid’s obvious orbit on the time indicated the opportunity of an impression with Earth in 2028.
However, reexamination of previous commentary information revealed beforehand undetected photos of 2020 XR, permitting astronomers to extra precisely calculate the asteroid’s trajectory and in the end conclude a zero-percent likelihood of impression with Earth till a minimum of the yr 2120.
Related: What are asteroids?
NASA classifies any asteroids or comets in orbits inside an identical distance from the solar as Earth as NEOs, and people bigger than 460 ft (140 m) that additionally fly nearer than 4.6 million miles (7.5 million km) of Earth are deemed doubtlessly hazardous. As of December 2024, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is monitoring greater than 2,400 doubtlessly hazardous asteroids (PHAs), together with 2020 XR.
The subsequent shut go by asteroid 2020 XR will happen in November 2028, albeit at a extra comfy distance than this yr’s flyby. Four years from now, 2020 XR will come inside about 11.3 million miles (18.2 million km) of Earth — way more distant, fortunately, than astronomers’ first 2028 predictions for the house rock.
