Asteroid found 2 days after brush by Earth
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Asteroid hidden by sun’s glare
On July 15, 2023, the ATLAS observatory in South Africa discovered an asteroid up to 200 feet (60 m) in size two days after it passed closest to Earth. Astronomers designated the asteroid 2023 NT1. And NASA called it airplane-sized. Compare 2023 NT1 to the asteroid that hit Arizona some 50,000 years ago, leaving the large, famous Barringer Crater, aka Meteor Crater. The asteroid that made Meteor Crater might have been only slightly smaller (about 160 feet or 50 m in size). The newly discovered asteroid passed within only one-quarter the moon’s distance. It came closest to Earth at 10:12 UTC on July 13, 2023.
It missed us. It wasn’t a threat to Earth. But why didn’t one of our observatories pick it up sooner? The reason is the asteroid came at us from the direction of the sun, a known weak spot in our defense against space rocks.
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60K miles...
Missed it by that much.
Damn.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Asteroid found 2 days after brush by Earth:
@mark said in Asteroid found 2 days after brush by Earth:
What kind of airplane? A piper cub? An Airbus 380? A paper airplane?
"an asteroid up to 200 feet (60 m) in size"
I read that. I was just being silly with 89th's response.
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Did we toss some Tardigrades at it?
