Massive Football Field-Sized Asteroid Comes Close to Earth in Surprise Flyby By Ada Carr
11 hours ago
The image above shows a diagram of asteroid 2018 GE3's orbit when it made a close pass by the Earth on April 15, 2018. (NASA/JPL) At a Glance
A football field-sized asteroid made a close shave with our home planet on April 15.
It came within half the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Researchers did not detect the space rock until just a few hours before it flew past.
A massive football field-sized asteroid made a close pass by Earth Sunday, a phenomenon that went unnoticed until the last minute.
With an estimated diameter of up to 361 feet, asteroid 2018 GE3 came within 119,500 miles of Earth, which is half the distance from our planet and the moon, EarthSky.org reports.
Researchers were unable to detect the massive rock until just a few hours before it flew past, LiveScience reports. While most asteroids stay within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, others pass by the Earth but aren't detected because they are typically small and dark.
Though these celestial objects sound massive, they're tiny rocks in comparison to the infinitely expansive universe. However, they're large enough to do damage if they were to collide with Earth.
According to EarthSky, a large portion of the asteroid would have been disintegrated by friction with the air upon entering our atmosphere. However, some of it would have been able to make it to the surface, posing a threat of regional damage.
Asteroid 2018 GE3 is even larger than the space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013. The meteor was roughly 56 feet in diameter and weighed roughly 11,000 tons.
It caused nearly 1,200 injuries after a shock wave from the explosion shattered acres of windows in the city.
Poster Comment:
Surprise, surprise!