Wednesday's Asteroid Flyby
Department:
Near-Earth Objects
Teaser:
Source:
SPACE.com Download time: Jun 3 2011 9:35 AM ET
An asteroid the size of a small motorhome zoomed near Earth last night (June 1), coming closer to us than the moon ever does.
The 23-foot-long (7-meter) space rock, named 2009 BD, came within 215,000 miles (346,000 kilometers) of Earth at around 8:51 p.m. EDT (0051 GMT on June 2). The moon's average distance from us is about 239,000 miles (385,000 km).
2009 BD never threatened to hit Earth on this pass, researchers said. But even if the asteroid had slammed into us, it wouldn't have been a big deal.…
See SPACE.com for links to further info.
