Scientists think it created massive tsunamis and threw so much water and dust into the atmosphere that it cut off sunlight, lowered temperatures worldwide and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The mountain-size asteroid left a crater off the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula 93 miles (146 kilometers) wide and 12 miles (19 kilometers) deep. The most famous asteroid ever is the one that hit Earth 66 million years ago. There are obvious craters on Earth (and the moon) that prove a long history of massive objects hitting the planet. 18, 2022, at safe distance of 1.2 million miles (1.93 million kilometers).īut not all asteroids throughout history have missed Earth. It flew on by Earth on its closest approach in 200 years Jan. Earlier in the year one asteroid - NASA labeled it asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1- was 2.5 times the height of New York City's Empire State Building. It was updated on January 27, 2023, to reflect that asteroid 2023 BU had passed by Earth.There were five asteroids on the Asteroid Watch dashboard for December 2022, alone, including two thought to be the size of a commercial jet. "Within three days, a number of observatories around the world had made dozens of observations, helping astronomers better refine 2023 BU's orbit," said NASA, and the asteroid's approach was announced by the Minor Planet Center - internationally recognized "clearinghouse" for monitoring the movements of small celestial bodies.Įditor's note: This article was originally published on January 26, 2023. All that would have to happen far enough away from Earth, because you don't want to create space debris that hits the International Space Station, as has happened in the past.īut credit goes to amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who discovered the asteroid 2023 BU from an observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea.Īnd, luckily, there is a process in place for what to do when an asteroid like this is discovered, and it appears to have worked well. It takes time to prepare and launch a rocket with a precisely calculated and programmed probe onboard, eject that probe and successfully impact the asteroid. Any future DART-like mission would need more time that that to save us from damnation. We have only known about asteroid 2023 BU since Saturday, January 21 - we've had five days warning. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video An amateur astronomer spotted 2023 BU How can we defend Earth against asteroids? And that's some relief, because that is where most of our communications and Earth observation satellites live these days.
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It is vital that the asteroid does not hit a satellite: Some GEO are used for TV communications, others are weather satellites.Īs the asteroid flew by Earth, it veered into what is known as medium-Earth orbit, but it did not get into the low-Earth Orbit zone, which is between 160 and about 2,000 km above Earth's surface. So asteroid 2023 BU will fly by these spacecraft as it gets closer to our planet. Geosynchronous satellites orbit at about 37,000 km from Earth. That is "well within" the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, said NASA. The asteroid got as close as 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles) to our planet's surface. How close did the asteroid come to Earth? If any of it survives its interaction with the Earth's atmosphere, NASA said "some of the bigger debris potentially as small meteorites." What time did the asteroid pass Earth?Īsteroid 2023 BU flew over the southern tip of South America at about 4:29 p.m. They call it "small," but the asteroid is estimated to be 3.5 to 8.5 meters (11.5 to 28 feet) across. But even if it did, this small asteroid would turn into a fireball and largely disintegrate harmlessly in the atmosphere."
The American space agency NASA had made it plain a day before Asteroid 2023 BU was due to fly by Earth: "There is no risk of the asteroid impacting Earth. Asteroid watchers got their calculations right - we can all relax.
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