An asteroid that is three meters big almost hit Earth last March 2. The scientists at NASA spotted the said asteroid six hours before it passed through Earth's atmosphere.
The 2017 EA asteroid was only 9,000 miles away from Earth or 14,500 above the Pacific Ocean. It was 20 times closer the distance than Earth's moon. 2017 EA asteroid reached its closest distance to Earth at 6:04 a.m. PST on Thursday morning, Mail Online stated. There have been many instances where asteroids came this close to Earth. However, this particular asteroid will not come again in the next 100 years.
The asteroid, called 2017 EA, was located above the eastern Pacific Ocean, NASA CNEOS said in a statement. Though its orbit was unclear and undetected by NASA at first, it is now quite known. After it was seen by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, it passed through the daytime sky and cannot be seen anymore. It was super close to Earth that it was within the ring of geosynchronous satellites. There were many observers and amateur astronomers who saw the said asteroid.
There have been many other 'close shaves' events like this. 'Close shave' asteroids are the asteroid that comes super close to Earth. Just this year, on January 8th, asteroid 2017 AG1 flew by Earth at a distance of 126,461 miles or 203,520km. The next one after it was on January 24th, asteroid 2017 BX flew by Earth at a distance of 162,252 miles or 261,120km. Following that one was asteroid 2017 BH30.
It flew and passed by Earth at a distance of 40,563 miles or 65,280 km. the last one before 2017 EA was asteroid 2017 BS32. It passed by Earth at a distance of 100,214 miles or 161,280 km. there were even asteroids with the size of a building and a school bus that passed by Earth in January.
