A newly found bus-sized asteroid came close to earth today at speed of more than 21,000mph [34,000km/h]
Named 2017 YZ4, the asteroid was only spotted on Christmas day, which means very little could have been done to protect earth if it were to hit. The asteroid passed between the earth and moon at a distance of just 139,433 miles [224,000km] close enough to be considered a ‘’near miss’’ by astronomers. The hazardous asteroid which is 22.6 to 49 feet in diameter [7 to 15 meters] skimmed past earth at 4:56pm GMT yesterday.
Astronomers describe the asteroids as ‘hazardous’ if they come within the 4,600,000 mile [7,403,00km] threshold of proximity to our planet. The asteroid was first spotted at mount Lemmon survey observatory in Arizona and will be the 52nd to pass between earth and the moon this year. Finding out about the orbit trajectory size shape mass composition and rotational dynamics would help experts determine the severity of a potential impact. However, the key to mitigating damage is to find any potential threat as early as possible.
This is the first known asteroid to flyby earth within the lunar distance since two such asteroids flew past us 35 minutes apart on November 21, and the 52nd this year. As of December 24th there are 17,495 known near-earth objects [NEOs] around our planet, 17,389 are asteroids.
Anything that flies closer than six million miles of our planet is a near earth asteroid and could cause severe damage were it ever to crash on earth.