Bus-size asteroid came closer to Earth than the Moon yesterday

Bus-size asteroid came closer to Earth than the Moon yesterday

2014 HL129 was uncovered Wednesday, Apr. 29.

According to a report from Space.com, a bus-size asteroid came closer to Earth than the Moon on Saturday morning.

Although asteroid 2014 HL129 passed within 186,000 miles of Earth, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Asteroid Watch seemed unconcerned when asked about the event by a Twitter user.

“Actually, a small asteroid safely passed Earth about 8/10 the distance of our moon. It’s not all that uncommon,” @AsteroidWatch tweeted when asked, “Anything close to us today?”

Citing an alert by the Minor Planet Center, Space.com adds that asteroid 2014 HL129 was uncovered Wednesday, Apr. 29, by astronomers with the Mt. Lemmon Survey team.

2007 VK184, the asteroid known to pose the most significant risk of Earth impact over the next century, was recently removed from NASA’s asteroid impact hazard list. New observations suggest that 2007 VK184 will pass no closer than 1.2 million miles from Earth in June 2048.

In 1998, The NASA Near-Earth Object Program Office was established at JPL to coordinate efforts to detect, track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that could approach our planet.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *