• Tiny Asteroid Whizzes by Earth (2017 EA)

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Fri Mar 3 01:58:56 2017
    From Newsgroup: sci.space.news

    http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news194.html

    Tiny Asteroid Whizzes by Earth (2017 EA)
    March 2, 2017
    Paul Chodas
    Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS)

    A small near-Earth asteroid less than 3 meters (10 feet) across whizzed
    safely past Earth today at a distance so close that it passed well inside
    the ring of geosynchronous satellites. Designated 2017 EA, the asteroid
    made its closest approach to Earth at 6:04 a.m. PST (9:04 a.m. EST / 14:04 UTC) at an altitude of only 14,500 kilometers (9000 miles) above the eastern Pacific Ocean. At its closest point, this asteroid was 20 times closer
    than the Moon; it then quickly moved into the daytime sky and can no longer
    be observed by ground-based telescopes.

    [Graphic]
    Asteroid 2017 EA Close Approach to Earth on March 2, 2017 (D. Farnocchia, NASA/JPL)

    2017 EA was originally detected only 6 hours before closest approach by astronomers at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, near Tucson, Arizona.
    It was observed by several other observatories before it passed into the Earth's shadow just before closest approach.

    [Animation]
    Asteroid 2017 EA Close Approach to Earth on March 2, 2017 (R. Baalke,
    NASA/JPL)

    Even though 2017 EA was tracked for only a single day, its orbit is now
    known quite accurately. Computations by CNEOS indicate that the asteroid
    will not approach our planet this close again for at least a hundred years.

    Asteroid 2017 EA Close Approach to Earth on March 2, 2017 (D. Farnocchia, NASA/JPL)

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