A small asteroid flew very just about Earth Tuesday morning (Would possibly 14), simply two days after it was once found out via astronomers.The asteroid 2024 JN16 is not up to 15 toes (4 meters) vast — in regards to the length of a automotive. It didn’t hit Earth however got here inside of an insignificant 11,500 miles (18,500 kilometers) of our planet’s floor when it zipped via at 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 GMT) on Tuesday, in step with The Digital Telescope Challenge. 2024 JN16 was once found out via novice astronomer Gennadiy Borisov two days in the past the usage of the MARGO Observatory in Nauchnij, Crimea. Comparable: Information about asteroids
Nonetheless from an animation appearing the shut Earth flyby of the asteroid 2024 JN16 on Would possibly 14, 2024. (Symbol credit score: ESA)The distance rock belongs to the Apollo asteroid workforce, whose orbits intersect with that of Earth. A well-known asteroid from this workforce was once the Chelyabinsk meteor, which was once as huge as a six-story development when it broke up over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013, inflicting a blast more potent than a nuclear explosion. Since the orbits of such items put them at a chance of colliding with a planet or different asteroids, astronomers estimate that they continue to exist for somewhat brief sessions in our sun device — in all probability simply 10 million years or so. All over its brush with Earth, 2024 JN16 was once smartly inside the orbit of the moon and part as far-off because the shell of geostationary satellites, which circle our planet at an altitude of twenty-two,236 miles (35,785 km). As it flew so just about Earth, the asteroid perceived to shine at magnitude 13 at its brightest and was once subsequently visual to telescopes. It’s now greater than 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) from Earth within the constellation Serpens, on the other hand, and will best be noticed the usage of long-exposure pictures, in step with The Sky Reside.Breaking area information, the newest updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!
Asteroid 2024 JN16, noticed when it was once about 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) clear of Earth on Would possibly 14, 2024 — nearer than the moon. (Symbol credit score: Gianluca Masi/The Digital Telescope Challenge)This yr by myself, astronomers have discovered over 40 asteroids whose paths deliver them nearer to Earth than the moon’s orbit, the Watchers reported. 4 extra asteroids — two of them as large as a space, the 3rd as huge as an aircraft and the fourth the scale of a development — are anticipated to way Earth carefully however safely on Tuesday, in step with estimates from Asteroid Watch, a dashboard of near-Earth asteroids and comets controlled via NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
