There will be no "Armageddon" type of situation on Earth after an asteroid the size of car just missed hitting Earth on Monday.
The asteroid, known as 2021 GW4, traveled at 18,700 miles per hour when it passed the planet. At its closest, the asteroid was just over 12,000 miles away from Earth's surface at 9:01 a.m. ET. For reference, most geostationary satellites are around 22,000 miles away and the moon is roughly 238,900 miles away.
"We repeat this is an absolutely safe close approach. Asteroids of that size coming so close are relatively rare, but so far this year we had four objects coming within 0.07 lunar distance from Earth's center: 2021 GW4 is the largest of these four rocks," Masi said.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft begins its farewell tour of near-Earth asteroid Bennu | Space
A spacecraft carrying pristine asteroid samples and 4,000 megabytes of data is about to fly home from the asteroid Bennu .
The spacecraft, NASA's Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx , hasn't departed the asteroid just yet. But the craft is beginning its farewell tour, which will bring the spacecraft on a journey back to Earth.
During its most recent and final up-close approach of Bennu, OSIRIS-REx imaged the asteroid for 5.9 hours, which is more than one full rotation of the asteroid. The spacecraft flew within 2.1 miles (3.5 kilometers) of Bennu's surface, according to a recent statement from NASA . This was the closest OSIRIS-REx had been since sample collection, and the flyby maneuver ended around 6 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. GMT) on April 7.
Asteroid chunk explodes over Florida | WPEC
How do we know if an asteroid headed our way is dangerous?
Horizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
There are a lot of things that pose a threat to our planet – climate change, natural disasters, and solar flares, for example. But one threat in particular often captures public imagination, finding itself popularised in books and films and regularly generating alarming headlines: asteroids.
100-meter Asteroid Created a Strange Impact Event in Antarctica 430,000 Years Ago - Universe Today
The effects of ancient asteroid impacts on Earth are still evident from the variety of impact craters across our planet. And from the Chelyabinsk event back in 2013, where an asteroid exploded in the air above a Russian town, we know how devastating an "airburst" event can be.
Now, researchers in Antarctica have discovered evidence of a strange intermediate-type event – a combination of an impact and an airburst. The event was so devastating, its effects are still apparent even though it took place 430,000 years ago.
Passing Asteroid Lights Up South Florida Sky – CBS Miami
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A fireball streaking across the sky Monday night was seen from Tampa to the northwest Bahamas.
CBS4 Chief Meteorologist Craig Setzer said it looks like it was a very close pass of asteroid 2021 GW4. He said it was likely passing about 9,000 miles above us and briefly struck the atmosphere while moving at 16,000 mph.
He added it literally passed inside the moon’s orbit which is about 252,000 miles away from Earth.
Asteroid 2021:Fireball seen in Fort Pierce, Jensen Beach, West Palm
Treasure Coast and Brevard County residents were abuzz Tuesday after dozens took to social media sharing security camera footage of a flashing light that soared across the sky late Monday.
The bright orb was likely a fireball, or part of a meteor that burst into flames as it plummeted toward Earth's surface at about 10:16 p.m., said Jon Bell, the planetarium director at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce.
"It's a wonderful thing to see a chunk of rock from space come down like that," Bell said. "It's like a personal firework show."
Video: Drone test of Hera mission's asteroid radar
"To verify the antenna characteristics, we performed this aerial test with the support of the Hexapilots drone company," notes Martin Laabs of the Chair for Radio Frequency and Photonics Engineering of Technical University Dresden in Germany.
"For the most accurate measurements of the antennas' radiation properties, they had to be as far away as possible from other objects, so the Juventas model was hung 10 m down from the drone, which was flown up to 50 m into the sky."
OSIRIS-REx Did One Last Close Flyby of Asteroid Bennu.
If you’ve been following the OSIRIS-REx mission, you probably already know why scientists are keen to see these photographs, but if you haven’t, hold on to your hats – it's a wild story.
The team also expected the asteroid to be geologically quiet, but just six days after arriving in orbit, they were astounded to observe the asteroid ejecting bits of rock from the surface out into space. These days, the leading theories regarding the source of the ejections are 1. that they might be caused by small meteoroid impacts, or 2.
Happening on Twitter
WATCH as what is believed to be #asteroid 2021 GW4 as it came in like a wrecking ball across parts of south Florida… https://t.co/ojrJv9hHVA MyRadarWX Tue Apr 13 05:49:52 +0000 2021
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